Lock Stock and Trade at Great Lakes

Great Lakes, with the firing mechanism- a coruscating metallic lock (the biggest mock IPO event); fitted on the wooden butt end -stock of the gun (20 acres green campus); Powered with nine cylindrical smoking barrels (seven of these were Great Lakes teams) fired incessantly for over eight hours.

Even as the met department issued signs of warning, even as the torrential rain consumed the east coast road, Great Lakers escorted the enemy tanks (teams from other institutions) to the war zone. And, soon it began.

Prof. R.S. Veeravalli-Director Executive MBA, opened the event with the characteristic elegance and composure that he is known for. Welcoming the guests, he quipped that Great Lakes has been busy praying for rain this morning, so the visitors would remember the day for a life time. He later remarked that the memorable day has been made possible by the judges who have confirmed to be on the panel, and expressed his deepest gratitude for making to the event despite the deluge.

Judges:

1. Srinivasan Vishwanathan, partner at Apt Talent Partners, Inc
2. K. Ramakrishnan, Executive Director & Head, Spark Capital
3. Mr. R. Narayan, VP, HDFC Bank

Mr. Vishwanathan recalling his meeting with Dr. Bala V. Balachandran (Dean and founder of Great Lakes), noted that his visit to Great Lakes has been a memorable one. He observed “I have not seen such an event anywhere else. Perhaps this is one of its kind; a unique one”. Later he spoke about the sea change in the style of investing today, from what it had been twenty years prior to now. In this context, he noted “I think it was Reliance that changed the way we looked at stocks”. Moving on, he explored the rationale behind the shift. Technology, he opined, shrunk the product life cycles and has brought in short term focus.

The event began with all the teams presenting the companies they represented while investors sifted in their minds, their priorities.

T. S. Eliot resignedly postulated in 1915 (albeit in a different context)

Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse

Every one of us, ones playing investors, ones representing the nine companies, all of us submitted to neurotic indecisiveness in the face of suffocating intensity of the game as the event began.

Every single minute, someone in a corner somewhere in the big hall of three hundred switched his priorities of investment. The worried ones left the hall to sip hot coffee in Bajaj Bistro, the jubilant ones sat meditatively staring at the steel structure in the India Cements Amphitheater.

And, so it went on for over eight hours.
Please check out the winners at our Achievements page.
http://www.greatlakes.edu.in/studentAchievements.php

And the sun was gone!

There was never a longing for sun in Chennai as it is now. It has been a week, sun is held back by the thick clouds that look menacingly towards the earth. I still remember those days when sun would enquiringly peep above the horizon, searchingly shed light on the edge of my table cloth, paint it yellow and pale. Light smoothly slides over, finds a coffee mug or some such object, and glides over it (for the morning light is still weightless); reaches the end of the table, swoops over the edge, and floats on the floor much as a reptile with no legs. The light now passes over a spoon lying on the floor and swathes it crimson gold; now reaches the end and crawls up the wall, above and above it climbs until the wall is flushed yellow.

Must be a cold morning breeze, for the leaves of the tree beside my room gently tap against the window. Slowly the light grows in intensity, now it has gained some weight, it slips from the surface of objects to explore their bodies and uncovers them one after another. Light explores the objects that are submerged in darkness and brings them to life, lifts them out, much as an explorer underwater pulls one out of water; gives form to the table, spoon, floor and the wall. Gradually the objects are rid of their golden colour, now they are firm, inelegant and exuding raw energy. Some glisten as if they find sun inhospitable; others merely stand alive and naked in the sun.

As the sun ascends higher and higher, the light on my bedroom wall slips as if sun is pulling it back; I watch as the light desperately clings on to my spoon here, and table there, I still watch aghast as the last pools of light resting on the curtains by the window part. And the sun was gone.

That was last week, and since then it has been raining here in Chennai. Classes as usual, but the students have reserved themselves with playing football indoors; from upstairs one can see students leaving the canteen covered with umbrellas. The progress of construction of guest rooms inside the campus is slightly hampered by the torrential rains; some of us sneezing (some have moved on to catching cold already);  atmosphere humid and air clean, sky dark and clouds menacing, floor slippery and slippers muddy, shoes heavy and clothes clinging to the body, head scratchy and body aching.

Every one of us is waiting for the sun. The thick clouds are still protesting saintly and the sun has so far failed to pierce them; the clouds above are so low that they are brushing the tips of tall trees beside our campus, and resting on some mountain or plain in the horizon.

So far, no sun!

There! There! Cried out a great laker

There! There! Cried out a great laker at eight forty five on a bright morning,

At the sight of vision in his head that was forming

The rainbow in the sky receded into the background,

While he treaded on the road to class, lonely and awkward

In the class, he chided and others were thrilled,

For able though, he left the assignment unfinished

The lecturer grimaced and the lonely warrior produced,

‘Parts missing’, the lecturer exclaimed ‘splendid, you have achieved’

Doubtful warrior protested,

And the lecturer censured

‘Your work is a mark of genius, for you have twisted the ending’ explained the bald man on stage,

Baffled but delighted, acquiesced the young sage

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A golden bird alighted in manamai,

Impressed fortune upon the great laker and said ‘hi’

The bird (guest lecturer) dipped its wings in pools of great lake,

And was treated with a big candle, coke and a cake

Golden fluids dripped him (great laker) wet as he stepped into the pool, in glee,

The clock chimed four quarters past three

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It was raining and he wore his trousers rolled,

The sky was pallid and weather cold

Munching heavily on the evening snacks, gratified with every bite,

He enquired with his team, of the tasks for the night

‘So much to do, so little time’, complained his team mate ‘what with the cold weather, I am not even fit’

‘Whining doesn’t help’, said he ‘it’s for our own benefit’

Together they finished the assignments, little did they realise that it was three in the morning,

Widely yawning, his friend scathingly argued ‘it is so very boring’

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But, it is….he yawned ostentatiously, staring pleasingly at the wrist watch,

And they all went into the TV room to watch highlights of the previous day’s match

Then they parted, slept for little over two hours,

Before waking up to read the first fifteen pages of the next course

The washing machine was swallowing his shirt buttons one at a time,

And he thought ‘aliens are behind this conspiratorial crime’

Thoroughly enjoying the picturesque beauty of the fields from his room’s window,

He started, at someone behind him, the shadow

‘We are getting late’ adjudged his friend ‘for the class’

So, he ran madly and almost fell into the pool, trying to prevent from bumping into the lass

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The library so huge and wide that he sat in a corner overlooking the gym,

To avoid feeling empty and vacant, he pulled the blinds before him

Rain left the mirrors clean, oh the outside weather was so still!

He caught cold, so reluctantly swallowed a pill

Perused through the day’s news, grimaced at a politician’s fate,

Made notes of some, for a future date

The white little doggy was dancing in the rain, while he was searching for ‘the times’ in the shelf,

Prancing and pulling hard at the branch of a tree that dropped low, the doggy enjoyed all by himself

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The sun descended, stars conjured as if in a trail,

The academics lady released the score card, so read the mail

‘come let’s go to mahabs’ his friend craning his neck into the grade sheet proposed,

‘But it’s nothing really, oh nothing really’ he read the lyrics for the song he composed

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The canteen was chaotic and the queue long,

So he left the place to try a hand at ping pong

Horrified at the defeat he ran upstairs, the mirrors inside the gym had a lustful sheen,

Heaving he returned after finishing a round on the jogging machine,

At dinner, he eavesdropped on some fellows, about economy, they were quacking,

After dinner, the cute little dog approached him, with its tail wagging

He pat the dog around the ears,

And struck a chat with a chap about the market bulls and bears

Morning glory of canteen-spider of drowsiness

After filling her plate with bread sandwiches, a bowl full of cornflakes and hot milk, she proceeded to sit in a lonely corner of the canteen. There she held the sandwich loosely between her fingers and brought it closer to her mouth. She was in a rather pensive mood, for she bit into the sandwich meditatively, almost mechanically she chewed her food, and was staring into blankness. Her plaintive mood depressed him, and he rolled his tongue over the over-chewed remains of a single bite of sandwich, much as a bull does in its period of rumination on a lonely afternoon under the shade of a banyan tree- with the sun trying to look through the leaves that shifted with a small whiff of air; and the flies poking into the thick skin; and the white swans deliberately walking over (with their thin weakly long legs, as if in eternal fear and trepidation of something or someone watching them, slowly balanced on one leg, and the other tucked in, about to be deployed. Oh but one must think! Above all one must be sure if the other leg has to be deployed or not. Look around and only after absolute certainty should one walk), the giant mammals preserve their stately state.

The man standing before the kitchen door wonders if breakfast cereals had fibers of melancholy in them, hidden inside they would await a victim, and once in mouth multiply and secrete a juice that produced the hormones of melancholy. And, now he is dragged in too. The network of rumination (the frightful clarity of staring into abyss) drags in each and every occupant of the canteen. Every new person that entered into the canteen, choose (by the inherent virtue of an unknown treaty) some place calm, some place morose, lonely, uneventful, once here the person would reveal himself, expose to the open jagged ends of the spider net. And, it goes on, the invisible spider crawls up above the floor of every single person’s mind, hooks them up and suspends them, baits them for every new person that enters the canteen. It is only a matter of time before everyone submits to the omnipotent and omniscient spider-the spider of drowsiness, and everyone merely stares into the abyss.

Great Lakes canteen is a rarity in itself, it has the seething brilliance of an afternoon, and accommodates almost punctually to the chaotic snacking of the evenings, princely (and stately) catering of the night, but above all preserves the glory (with a certain wickedness) of the mornings. After a vertiginous night out (with the brain servicing room for more, and more, and more….. flooding of information), and barely enough sleep (for the dusk sinks they are awake, and the dawn rises they are awake), Great Lakers wake up to a fine breakfast. Each student walks into a lonely corner of the canteen; (mornings) canteen is rid of the usual chatter, the kitchen door is open and the milk man walks in and out delivering packages of milk, a lonely person (where there would be tens during the rest of the day) stands before the counter serving nonchalantly, the white dog before the canteen door would still be sleeping, the maid inside the kitchen leisurely chops off carrots (or potatoes or tomatoes…). The absence of hubbub in canteen makes it such a desirable place that only sleepwalkers would fail to notice. Someone turns on the radio from inside the kitchen, or the delivery van has come and the man is unloading the day’s vegetables (fresh from the market), and the men get to work solely, slowly, languidly. The morning glory of the canteen lasts only for a precious thirty minutes (on some days, it lasts longer, perhaps on a Sunday), and it gradually dissolves into the surroundings as the kitchen crew pours in.

And, just as the morning glory of the canteen dissolves, the spider of drowsiness retreats into its shelf, and all the students un tethered and unhooked from the bonds of the spider, become active and the day goes on until the next morning, until the spider wakes up, until the morning glory of the canteen magically conjures up.

 

Frigid splendor or splendid frigidity?

Frigidity, ah I reprimand such an indecent display of nature’s will! She thought as she looked about her helplessly. Unhitching the torn sari’s end from the hatchet lying on the dried and woodened floor, she gaped at the horrific sight before her. Dusty wind stormed towards her, hurling dry twigs, sticks of wood and burnt ash (of trees that the villagers fell). Wind passed her by, now swooping to collect debris by the hut here, now dropping it on the corpse of a buffalo there. Poor thing, he is limping now, she thought as she approached her husband. Fatigue and fright had deprived him of humanness. He felt dizzy and nauseated; he hated himself for the nature’s wrath (famine). He trusted no one, the figure approaching him was menacing, no they would never understand him, mankind was upon him, it was a terrible curse, to be born and to live a life such as this. Her husband was talking to himself; he bothered her, only yesterday he talked about killing himself. Such a terrible thing to say, for a man like him, they had better lives, in those days; he walked about the village in his neatly ironed cotton shirt, but now, nature with her spiteful venom dried up their wells, sucked up the clouds (so high were they now, it no longer rained) and ruined their lives. ‘The terrible creature again’ he ran madly, ‘they are going to kill me now’ he screamed with mortified terror of the unknown and crawled up into the attic that disturbed the kettle that was suspended from the roof. The kettle tumbled on the floor, with the pugnacious dog by its side, for the rice from previous night was now emptied out of it. The creature maliciously craned its neck and faced the indescribably hapless owner, dropped its neck and began eating as the owner watched the day’s food being snatched away mercilessly.

Splendid, ah how I like it! Such a beauty, the drapes fluttered joyously as the hostess opened the window. Wind blew the drapes over the smooth round pillars, lollopped over the velvet fabric and caused a rapid flapping- tut, tut, tut, and the hostess closed the window, duly apologizing for her mannerisms. The window doors creaked softly, reminding the hostess of the remarkable job done by her carpenter. I must invite him for the party next time, she thought. The wind receded, with one huge whimper and the drapes slowly settled into folds by the window side as if life beneath them has been sucked away, and wrinkled, there, they lay for the rest of the party. A man in an impeccable suit, brown hair, blue eyes and stout shoulders walked into the big hall that was radiating with energy. The hostess soon recovered (for she wasn’t expecting him) and stately, she approached him. ‘How delighted I am that you accepted my invitation’ she rejoiced with her cheeks flushed. His hair was drawn back and neatly combed, ‘he looks fabulous’, she thought.  The hall was decorated with majestic velvet drapes, a huge chandelier in the middle suspended from the roof that mimicked an octopus with the tentacles (coloured in gold) running all the way from the roof to the floor (thickening on their journey) and branching into the pillars draped in velvet. The hostess lifted her cat and patted it. She fed her cat with the most delicious food and blushed as the creature took turns between licking its paws and nibbling at the bread crumbs.

The stark contrast between the two lives is depressingly clear. ‘Great Lakes’ endorses the idea of fundamental disciplines. In its attempt to build leaders of tomorrow, the institute has sworn to deliver on its promises-to churn out men of character, of desire to balance the pans (of rich and poor, of educated and uneducated, of good and bad). It is said that a nation progresses together with all of its people or merely tips the balance way off. Great Lakes is endeavouring to foster social responsibility among tomorrow’s leaders. It is the responsibility of tomorrow’s leaders to build a strong nation- a nation full of heroes.

Hidden purse and passion

He opened his eyes slowly, looked at his wife, first the chin, then the nose and finally the forehead. She was sewing, with her lips pursed (as all women do while sewing). He watched her intently, was it the morning’s fog that was rubbing its back against the bedroom window, was it the day’s first shaft of light that slantingly stroked her ears, was it the jocund manner in which she brandished her needle as a child does its scars, he no longer remembered, but she was beautiful, and nothing else mattered. She muttered something indistinctively, rose and brushed the crumbs of bread on her frock, flapped it once in air, pulled the needle away, started, as if she has seen a ghost. He never woke up so early, she held his face up by her pink palms and kissed him on the lips, there is nothing whatever the matter with him, she declared after examining his sleepy eyes and wrinkled forehead with her lips.

Here at Great Lakes, students approach electives as the protagonist did his wife. First the perusal of course outline, then the first session, and finally the assignments. All the trepidation is washed away and the students begin to love the electives, for each elective taught by the best and only the best in that field. Most of the professors fly from US, for they feel united in the sublime cause (to be the change, be the best and make India proud) for which the institute stands for. And, the professors shower their love (fuelled formidably by their passionate reverence to the subject) on the students, just as the protagonist’s wife did.

Holding her purse in one hand, tea cup in another, she approached him. Washing the tea around with a spoon, he lent his eyes to the purse. She was hiding her hands behind her, such a ravishing beauty she was, he thought. Much as a hen spreads her feathers and guards the nest and eggs, she was hiding something from him. He shaded his eyes with the back of his palm and looked at her. With glistening eyes and hair that had fallen over her forehead, with the sun that flew in to catch her smiling, with the parrot on the window sill picking at her wings, with the cat that stopped licking its paws, in the bright morning, she looked frightfully gorgeous. He stroked her cheeks with his palm, held her hair that was smoothly caressing her forehead and tucked it away, rolled it over her ears with his thumb and index finger. Slowly he extended his arms about her, embraced her and pulled the hidden object out of her hands. It was the purse; it had a beautiful rose knitted on one side. After thorough examination, he indicated to her that the rose was so good that it had to be in the middle rather than on a side.  Ah she liked him for that! She loved him the most when he commented on her hobbies. The moment was so precious for her, it was a moment that she lovingly gulped in, if someone walked into the room right now, they wouldn’t realise that a precious and intimate moment had just occurred, and she thought, it was so intimate that only she and her husband would know, it was theirs and no one would notice. She loved him for that.

Much as the relationship between the protagonist and his wife, the lecturers hide their most precious objects (case studies, assignments) until the very end. And, at the end of the course, students lovingly embrace (with a thorough understanding of the subject) the case studies and business plans. And the lecturers are so delighted with the display of passion (by the students in their deliverance of the assignments) that they tuck the moment close to their hearts. And the relationship between any guest lecturer from any part of the globe and the student stays fortified forever, as they promise to come back to Great Lakes, for little did they knew (or expect) that passion of the kind displayed at Great Lakes existed.

The atavistic nature of great laker’s MBA

There has been a change in the atmosphere inside the campus. In the past couple of days, it has begun raining; the neatly ploughed fields beside the campus are drowned, the deepest of furrows marooned, only the tractor stands in the middle of the fields, lonely as if awaiting its turn to pluck the soil with its sharp rusted teeth on the trail. The sun is covered with thick veils of translucent clouds; the whole sky now looks seamless as if the painter has dabbed the borders of the sky on his painting board with cotton buds.

Just as the driver of a four wheeler, after driving up an incline, pulls his feet off the throttle on a long ride and the four stroke IC engine idles, so the campus is idling presently. The driver sits back and relishes the scenic beauty of the lush green fields on either side of the roadway that converges briefly into a bridge over a canal; the driver stops the vehicle and sits by the bridge-with the sound of water running into rock crevices in the background, he lifts his head and gapes at the bluish sky scarred with a straight line of smoke (a jet plane must have left the trail of cloud). And, the driver wonders, amazed by the straight line of thin streak turning into a thick amorphous cloud and finally disintegrating into the bluish sky.

Seated with his back against the cement wall, sound of water pulling his nerves taut as strings of a guitar, he reacts promptly – he descends into depths of serenity as if water in the canal carried rich sediments from the Himalayas and paused just for the moment on its way to the ocean, for he was present there; birds paused briefly in their flight, swooped down upon him, for he was separating grass stalks holding them by their tips and reaching out to the roots as if he was searching for something (but what! He no longer remembered, but it did not matter anyhow); the wheat fields on either side of the road swayed towards him, for they too wished to be present; the sky lowered itself down; and the clouds enraptured with delight, drizzled, for never before have they all witnessed a person so calm and assimilated into nature.

It is perhaps the atavistic nature of an MBA course, or the anachronistic feeling of a great laker, because we had no classes for the last couple of days. And, this is such a rare moment that every one of us has been epitomizing the driver. Our reflections over the serene comforts of the driver are needless to say, ephemeral, for we have received the time table for our next week and it is anything but serene.

The sun has come out into the open and the lonely tractor in the fields beside our campus has already begun its work. The driver of the countryside is no more than a lucid dream, for the running water, birds, fields, sky and the clouds have all disappeared now, and the roadway if anything is chaotic with vehicles honking horns rapidly. The driver gets into the vehicle and as he drives, he reflects on the brief but enraptured moment of experience he had. As the roadway is punctuated every now and then with small bridges such as the last one, great lakers burn their midnight oil amidst chaotic schedules, anticipating another one of those days with nothingness, another one of those bridges.

Demon sleep, coffee hall and the sleepy white dog

Just as a young man seated near the window in the general compartment of a moving train is troubled by a sleeper jolting against him, Great Lakers seated near the window of the world in the compartment term 4 of the moving course MBA are troubled by the state of sleeplessness jolting against them perpetually.

The young man, the protagonist, might scornfully nudge, or worse poke against the sleeper. But, Great Lakers have learned the discipline of carrying the weight of sleeplessness; students have learned to confront the overpowering desire to sleep (by merely delving into the depths of subjects, be it marketing, operations, finance or strategy). Slowly, Great Lakers have evolved into balancing the slippery sleep on their eye lids, never to let the demon sleep fall into the eyes, for once inside, the demon multiplies and reddens the eyes.

“Reprimand the sleep, let us stay awake!” protest the Great Lakers. The rendezvous at the coffee halls late in the night have turned into something more meaningful. Sipping the hot coffee out of a disposable paper cup, with the screeching noise (of the learnt knowledge of the day floating on the surface of everybody’s mind, seething with piercing intensity to settle on the floor of the mind, for once and all) in their heads, each student eyes the other. In a fleeting glimpse, each student acknowledges the other’s conquests of the day.

In that coffee hall, while the world sleeps peacefully, Great Lakers compare their bounties, as the predators in wild do. Students sit loosely packed under one unifying theme- the unquenchable desire to know more. Someone in deep muse staring at the glass window is deeply adored by someone outside the window as an affirmation to the swelling mind space of the former.

The ruminations over the day’s conquests are silently acknowledged by everyone. The sleepy white dog disturbed by the communion, wakes up, wags its tail, stretches its body with its front legs extended outwards, paws a fly fallen from the overhanging bulb suspended firmly, pokes at the fly with his paws, puts his wide nostrils against the miniature, sneezes instantly and walks away from the dead fly (for he dislikes dead flies). Then, he sits and curiously watches the students and wonders if they all belong to a secretive clan (for it is late at night, and the students are punctual, and everyone is involved in tempestuous colloquies).

The sleepy white dog is perhaps (for now) the only one who has noticed the development of the secretive clan; he has been with us for almost seven months now. He waits for the clan to adjourn the day’s proceedings, for he has to get some sleep. Oh no! Not so fast, because here comes the time of the day he had been waiting for; before adjourning for the day, all the students, for a brief but momentous time, reflect on their reverence to the ultimate goal (an overwhelming desire to contribute meaningfully to the imminent and dramatic change in the world).

All the students raise their eyebrows to greet each patriot (for they belong to a secretive clan now, and have to follow the rituals) goodbye for the day. And this greeting leaves all the patriots’ (for the current batch is called patriots by the charismatic Dean ‘Uncle Bala’) foreheads wrinkled with the weight of sleep burdening upon the eyelids, and the wrinkles stay on forever as the secret symbol of rank and membership in the clan. He watches as all the students disperse with the contentment of the weight on their eye lids, and slips back into sleep.

Great Lakers would perhaps never fulfill the role of the protagonist (the young man troubled with the jolting sleeper in the train), for they have tamed the demon sleep by its tail and hooked it to their eyelids, never to let it fall into the eyes. For Great Lakers who have carried the monstrous weight of sleep on their tiny leaf shaped eye lids, the weight of a puny little jolting sleeper on their firm shoulders is grossly unsubstantial. 

‘Frugal Marketing’ by Jessie Paul, Chief Marketing Officer, Wipro Technologies

Ms. Jessie Paul with her almost effortless soothing voice presented to the class, the microcosm of brand building exercise. She asserted that the purer and traditional modes of marketing are increasingly becoming predictable, whereas the newer, innovative and unconventional practices (owing to their novelty, accessibility, flexibility and frugality) are mostly sought after in the current times. The speaker proffered on the patriots (class of 2010), a challenge-to define one’s uniqueness. Patriots conferred with the speaker; the session was more of an interaction than a guest lecture.

Pointing to the matrix (an adaptation of BCG matrix) on the presentation, she advised the class to identify the firms that they wish to work with, in one of the quadrants. This exercise, she promised, would reveal surprising revelations, and would aid one in career planning. She shared her knowledge of Yahoo’s traditional mass advertising campaigns in contrast to the frugal advertising adopted by Google.

In response to a question from one of the patriots, she replied that, one need not be the best in a huge expanse of space and time; one only has to narrow the space that one wishes to ascribe oneself with. She contended that by narrowing the space down, it becomes easier to define our uniqueness, which (in a much wider space) must have appeared fallible.

The speaker, in her well structured presentation, slowly took to the arduous task of preparing groundwork in answering the fundamental questions – Who am I? Why buy me? Why not buy someone else? – She implied that a brand map of an individual is no different from the brand map of a product or service.

Ms. Paul observed that though firms fudge the figures, the educated consumers of today would pay no heed to unverifiable proofs. Extending the train of thought a little further, she advised patriots that their abilities would remain merely claims in the eyes of a recruiter if they are not verifiable.

Towards the end of the session, Ms. Paul remarked that it is perhaps easier to sell experience than to sell the product itself. She noted that Padmasree Warrior on twitter is trusted more than any TV commercial. In reference to executive branding, the speaker noted that Barack Obama epitomized the whole brand building exercise.

Ms. Paul ended the session contending that social media would continue to dominate the world of marketing in the years to come.

 

Mr. Srivatsa Krishna, IAS on India’s second war of independence-Making Infrastructure happen

Mr. Srivatsa Krishna presented to the class, facts about India’s dominance in the world. He shared with us, figures on the infrastructure spending of India. And, he commented on the stark contrast between the two. Referring to some of the major and successful infrastructure programs of the recent times, such as the Golden Quadrilateral road network, he observed that the progress is palpable. Speaking about Gujarat’s GIFT project, he expressed his optimism on India’s predominance in the years to come.

The speaker observed that India’s spending on infrastructure is dismally low. He ascribed this state of inept approach towards the most defining parameter of progress of a nation, partly to the underpinning of democratic framework in our nation. He contended that, although corrupt politics are to blame, the private sectors cannot be left out of the sphere of culpability. Furthermore, to forestall any debate on propositions of audacious private sector involvement, he cautioned that the reliance on private sectors is neither the panacea nor is the efficacy of private sector involvement over the public sectors empirically proved.

He later turned his attention towards the systematic adulation of India in comparison to China. He argued that the two nations operate on radically different philosophies and the comparison is not only facetious at the face of it but also fallacious. He pointed out that the Shatabdi express, India’s fastest train travels at 130km/hr against the 430 km/hr train of China. He also commented on the phenomenal growth of infrastructure sector in the city of Shenzhen, which grew from a mere nothingness to a mammoth city of 3984 sky scrappers.

Mr. Krishna explained that the democratic framework that runs through the fabric of our society is omnipresent, omniscient and has protected us from the viral foreign invasions. But, democracy comes with a price, and the price is the gradual and selective progress (as in India) as opposed to the rapid development (as in China). To substantiate the point, quoting from his experience, he noted that the Chinese government in their ‘land acquisition’ operations paints the local houses in red, yellow, white and the authorities with unquestionable power of the rule proceed to dismantle the houses without paying heed to the plight of the people living in the houses. But, here in India, land acquisitions are painfully slow. From his anecdotal experience, he quoted the hilarious episode of three individuals in Hyderabad claiming the hussain sagar lake, in response to the government’s land acquisition orders in the city.

With a wild tiger exuding grandeur in the background in his presentation, the speaker concluded the session by asking us ‘The tiger is roaring, India is ready, are you?’

  

Mr Shiva Subramaniam, former consultant in creative learning and innovation for Tata Consultancy Services and Ms. Mrunalini on “Thinking About Creativity”

Mr. Shiva Subramanian, in a passionate lecture professed to the students of Great Lakes, the need for refining the thinking process. He ideated the thinking process in class, holding a bottle of Bisleri in his hand. And, he exclaimed “Is there anyone in this world who cannot be creative?”

Ms. Mrunalini with her placating voice and charming air delicately steered the lecture onto the right course. Drawing parallels between her industry experience and the classroom ‘knowledge sharing’, she and Mr. Subramanian epitomized the wealth of creative conflagration that they believed (and made us believe by the end of the lecture) was hidden in everyone of us.

Mr. Subramanian, speaking about his visit to Sri Lanka on a project with the Indian Cricket team under Rahul Dravid’s leadership, observed that the “six hats” apparatus of thinking is infallible. But he cautioned that being wary of the tool-six hats, might not be fruitful all the time. For, he explained that human beings are not impulsive or instinctive, but learn through experience. Human beings follow the routines that have been put to rigorous tests through the generations and apply them, the whole civilization runs on the application of these tested models. Instinctive behaviour is too slippery to create platforms for great civilizations such as us.

In a different context, Mr. Subramanian, through the example of Xerox, showed to the class that inventive minds, the creative minds should not be bogged down by the impediments of societal constructs, but have to swim against them. Relentless persistence after eight years resulted in one of the greatest and smartest works of copying paper-xerox. He advised us to bear in mind, the fact that necessity need not always precede invention. In fact, more often than not, it is the invention that precedes the necessity. Xerox is one such example, Edison’s phonograph is another example, and Einstein’s general theory of Relativity is a classic example.

The speaker implored the Great Lakers to be creative, use the “six hats” technique to streamline the thinking process, and lastly use the “lateral thinking” device to coax oneself out of the box.

Interpol’s International Drug Expert Mr. Ramachandra Sundaralingam on ‘Drug trade & Drug addiction’

Mr. Ramachandra Sundaralingam’s lecture had an air of investigation, and was filled with rich anecdotal references interspersed with the ominous nature of future awaiting the progeny. He shared with us, the ‘global drug trafficking’ scenario; modes of mischief and notoriety that Italian, Columbian and Russian mafia are known for.

He pointed out that the fall of Berlin wall was a moment of significance, a milestone for the future generations to look back upon us and ruminate. But, he remarked ‘today, the mafia, by their contrived use of global platforms has made the episode of globalization, a terrible curse’. From his 17 years of service with the Interpol as a police officer, he observed that the fall of communism and the globalization thereof have been the most catalytic moments that throttled the drug trafficking and propelled it into new heights hitherto impossible.

Mr. Sundaralingam commented on the plight and pitiful state of some of the undeveloped nations and their exposure to drug trafficking. Quoting from his experience, he noted that ‘80% of cocaine is produced in Columbia, 80% of heroin from Afghanistan’. He added that the UN mandate aimed at reducing both the supply and demand for drugs.  The incorrigible nature of drug traffickers and addicts is such that they have, in the compulsive mood, committed horrendous crimes and misdemeanors. Speaking of Afghanistan, he remarked that ‘of two sons in a family in Afghanistan, one embraces al-Qaeda and the other opium’. He added that smitten with poverty, drained of hunger, eclipsed by grief, the people of the nation have took to producing opium.

With reference to the death of a plastic surgeon in Mexico, Mr. Sundaralingam remarked that the cap to humanity is smeared; the drug addicts and traffickers are individuals of lacerated self esteem, they have become prey to the powerful trade, they are rid of curiosity, they have become impervious to the lives of people that they have victimized. The speaker then spent some time on the methods of concealment and the training schools of drug traffickers.

In culminating the momentous lecture, he pointed to the screen with two legends-one of Sachin Tendulkar, and the other Osama Bin Laden. A 12 year old in Afghanistan, thrown into the corner of a decrepit, misogynistic, malevolent, pestilential and metamorphosed society, finds refuge in AK-47, burns a house here, and kills a man there, aspiring to become Osama Bin Laden one day. While the class awaited in silence that put a serene lake in shame, he turned around, cleared his throat and observed that a 12 year old in India, with MRF bat in his hand, whirls the timber in cramped streets of every city in the country, breaking a glass window here, a car’s window there, and dreams of becoming Sachin Tendulkar one day.

He implored us all to respect the tradition that India is host to, the culture and family values by their inherent apparatus have saved us from the capricious minds outside. But, the fashionable western trends are burning holes into the ozone protection of family values that we stake our lives against. Mr. Sundaralingam prodded us, to embrace the culture that we are, and not dilute the atmosphere that piques the curiosity of the young ones, that lets the young ones dream of becoming Sachin Tendulkar one day.

Mr. Francis Alapatt, Atulya Development Associates Pvt. Ltd on ‘The science of selling’

Mr. Francis Alapatt delivered a passion filled lecture on ‘the science of selling’. In his lecture, he explored the ‘cliches’ associated with ‘selling’ in the businesses and the market environment. Pointing to the brown leather bag by the table, he remarked ‘I like to carry my bag that represents the old sales man bag’. He added ‘the philosophy of selling is undergoing a major transformation in the present times’. Selling according to Mr. Alapatt is no longer the job of persuading the customer, cajoling or coaxing him into buying the product or service. He opined that selling encompasses a whole gamut of requirements in businesses. ‘selling is the culmination of marketing’, he noted that selling in isolation is merely selling, but through the integration and coordination ‘selling’ spawns a new life;  a synergetic solution to the monolithic integrated whole-marketing & selling.

He observed later that ‘Marketing brings the horse to water or vice versa. Selling makes it drink’. In a different context, he expressed his apoplectic reaction to the phrase ‘sales people are feet on street’. He added ‘Marketing prepares the ground for sales team; some roads are frictionless, refined and polished to the extent that sales team swishes past their competitors. But, other roads are rugged, for marketing failed to polish the road, and sales team has an uphill task in such a case’.

Mr. Alapatt demonstrated to the class, human behaviours and instincts, by blindfolding 30 volunteers from the class and letting them on an exercise for fifteen minutes. Mr. Alapatt ended with the observation ‘selling skills are not merely persuasive skills but skills that focus on gaining commitment- to a product, a proposal or an idea’.

Mr. T.Ramaswamy, DGM Indian Bank on ‘Global Economic Meltdown’

One of the most exhaustive, comprehensive, cerebral and unimaginably superior lectures ever delivered on the topic ‘Global Economic Meltdown’.

Mr. T. Ramaswamy, quoting Einstein “I can predict the motion of the stars but not the markets” commented on the economic downturn of the recent times. He remarked on the placid latitudes such as people bemoaning at the inability of the able and best minds of our times in failing to predict the catastrophe and the cascading effect thereof.

Quoting Irving Fisher “I fancy that over-confidence seldom does any great harm except when, as, and if, it beguiles its victims into debt”, he claimed that the economic catastrophe was indeed speculated by many a people. To substantiate his point, he furthered us proofs from ‘The Economist’ magazine that anticipated the housing bubble way back in 2004; article from OECD, IMF in 2004-05; Prediction by Economists Nouriel Roubini & Robert Shiller. Commenting on the behaviour of people during the times of these publications, he said the general population was undergoing the ‘psychology of denial’.

Mr. Ramaswamy commented on the evolutionary characteristics of human brain. Pointing out to the studies made in various fields such as behavioral psychology, evolutionary biology and sociology, he exclaimed that it was the reptilian brain (prime mover of emotions) covered under thick shadows cast by the dog’s brain (the prime mover of loyalty) and rational brain (prime mover of rationality) that forms the rationale behind all the behaviours of humanity and certainly the behaviour of buyers and sellers in markets. He added ‘Rational brain waits, but the reptilian brain seeks instant gratification, and eventually the rational brain is foreshadowed subconsciously by the preponderance of the impulsive and instinctive reptilian brain’.

Quoting from ‘Mean Markets and Lizard Brains’, “the key to our biological success is the source of our financial difficulties”, he observed that the bizarre ‘herd instinct’ of markets can be explained from the evolution of human brain. In further to his assertion, quoting from the same book “Our lizard brains made us all financial risk junkies”, he noted that the explanation can also be derived from other fields of study such as Sigmund Freud’s ‘Id’ and ‘Ego’. Freudian study indicates that the ‘constant state of flux’ of the external environment puts the bridge between ‘Id’ and ‘Ego’ at risk. Freud contended that ‘Ego’ gets carried away by the external environment, while the ‘Id’ is stationary.

To finish the jig saw puzzle, he pulled out exploratory studies from rich and diverse fields by men such as ‘Michio Kaku’ and ‘Jared Diamond’. The speaker claimed that the 1930s recessionary scenario is strikingly similar to the present one, for the Debt to GDP ratio of US in 1930 was close to 300%, and presently it is around 350%. He added that India’s ratio that stand at a fairly decent rate-140%, coupled with the demographical advantage we are bound to see in the next two decades, would certainly propel us into periods of progression.

In a different context, he quoted from ‘collapse of complex societies’, commented on the ‘Medici Effect’, and pointed out that diversity spawns hitherto unrealized intellectual episodes. He commented on the lives of ‘Leonardo da Vinci’, ‘Michelangelo’. On his explorations into Carlota Perez’s studies, Mr. Ramaswamy professed that after every catastrophe or a crisis, there comes a period of progression.  The tremendous display of awe and vigor in our countenances was a manifestation of the great lecture that ended with the speaker’s contention ‘for younger generation of today, there is a gold mine awaiting you’.

HR Conclave 2009

Chief Guests:

Mr. R Seshasayee, Managing Director – Ashok Leyland Limited
Mr. Srini Raju, Managing Director – Peepul Capital Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd.
 
Keynote Speakers:

Mr. S Ramakrishnan (IAS)
Mr. Jay Desai – Founder & CEO; Universal Consulting India
Mr. Durjoy Patranabish – Country Head; Redpill Solutions
Mr. Ravishankar B. – Head – Organization Development & Effectiveness; HCL
Mr. S. V. Nathan – Director, Talent; Deloitte, US India Firms
Ms. Bhavana Isaar – GM, HR – India Region; British Petroleum
Mr. Samuel Chandar – Senior VP, HR; Henkel India
Mr. Puneet Jetli – Senior VP, HR and Head, People Function; MindTree Ltd.
Dr. Pramod Solanki – Head-People & Organization Development (E&C Division); Larsen & Toubro Ltd.
Mr. Subramaniam Arumugam – Senior VP, HR & Admin; Consim Info Pvt. Ltd.
Mr. Sudhir Warde – Executive VP, HR & Talent Development; Larsen & Toubro Infotech
Ms. Richa Gulati – Economist, Watson Wyatt Worldwide

Panel Discussion members:

Mr. Ramkumar Ramamoorthy (Mod) – VP, Marketing & Communications; Cognizant Technology Solutions
Mr. Edwin Sudhakar – Senior Manager, HR; Saksoft
Mr. Bijumon Jacob – Senior Manager, HR; Verizon
Ms. Kalpana S. – GM, HR; Sical Logistics Ltd.
Ms. Vishnu Priya – Manager, HR; Tecpro Systems

Dr. Bala V. Balachandran inviting the guests pointed out ‘students of the last batch felt an urgent need for a platform to exchange ideas between industries and institutions. HR Conclave is Great Lakes’ designed platform for HRs from all the verticals of the business world to come together and share their ideas with the institution’. He added ‘With the preponderance of Great Lakes, Chennai is presently leading the race for the title ‘Knowledge Capital of India’. The city of Chennai shares the title with Bangalore and Hyderabad’. He welcomed the guests and added ‘I am pleased at the progress we have made so far, but we are not complacent and would strive to improvise with every passing year’.

Mr. R. Seshasayee noted that it was delightful to watch Dr. Bala sing an emotion filled Tamil song. He drew leafs out of the story- with a father and his quarrelling sons attempting to break sticks when they are separate and when the sticks are all packed closely together- in explaining the characteristic ‘oneness of an organization’.  He commented on the findings made by Marine biologists ‘Communication travels to over 700 miles in fish when they sense danger’. He added ‘The ‘symmetrical patterns’ in coral reefs is an astonishing example of communication’. Extending his argument to the organization level, he remarked ‘to deal with rational and emotional problems separately and the relentless pursuits thereof is the challenge lying before HR professionals in an organization’.

Mr. Srini Raj commented on the general platitude ‘this century is ours; this century belongs to Indians’.  He observed ‘In 1900 BC, again in 500 AD, India was the greatest country in the whole world’. He added ‘India will have the largest base of young population in another 20 years’. He commented on the demographical advantage that the country would enjoy, but felt apprehensive about our abilities to squeeze mileage out of the situation. He observed ‘Young professionals often set goals to get placed in a visionary company, but the goals are flawed, for once placed they have achieved their goals and would not know what to make out of it henceforth’. He advised us to pursue the course of setting up companies, although risky, he commented ‘when you are young, you can afford to go wrong’.

Mr. S. Ramakrishnan commented on the flawed practices in HR. He observed ‘people who are written off in an organization often excel at a later point in time’. He also commented on the credence that we lay upon the credibility of exams such as CAT, GRE in judging the potential of a student. He argued that the exams might be excellent yardsticks at measuring the subset of a student’s intelligence, but are fallible, for the scale is representative of a niche quality of the student and never the whole. He noted that sportsmen, musicians and creative artists are all epitomes of niche potential exhibition, and hence to ascribe ‘intelligence’ as totality to any individual based on a single yardstick (that only measures single attribute) is a logical fallacy.

Mr. Ravishankar, in his presentation commented about the practices at HCL. He noted that in times of economic depression HCL declared that ‘no HCLite will be left behind’. He further mentioned that the statement in testing times was a manifestation of a truly admirable philosophy that HCL ascribes to. He added ‘we create home in office, the salsa classes, the internal matrimony site, the blogs and various other novel and innovative practices speak volumes about our organization’s HR practices’.

Our Placement Director Mr. Krishna Ram invited the guests to share their thoughts on questions pertaining to the day’s theme. He asked ‘Is there a mathematical model to gauge the employees?’, ‘how can one measure the efficacy and effectiveness of HR practices?’, ‘Can the attrition signals be captured before time and be acted upon? Do we have models for the same?’, ‘Has HR ever told their CEOs that later drew obscene amount of salaries?’, ‘Why are HRs averse to rotational policies? Why don’t they work in Marketing or Finance sectors for a while?’  And, he threw the floor open.

JP Desai in his unconventional approach, spoke on the theme ‘How to create an adaptive organization?’, he contended that the brightest minds could not predict or avoid the latest economic depression. He drew parallels between Evolution – Cambrian extinction that destroyed all the species but a few-, pointing to the graph, he noted ‘there is a striking similarity between the organizations’ decimation and the species’ decimation. He added ‘99% of all the organizations that ever existed are now extinct’. He concluded that we can draw lessons from nature; organizations have a life, just as a species does.

Mr. Durjoy Patranabish, speaking on the theme ‘HR model is changing from multinational to global’ remarked that ‘the economic scenario has led to rapid employee growth in emerging markets’. He added ‘the last couple of years have also been the stimulants for several broad changes in the external global business environment’. He reflected ‘Today, hiring approach should be focused on both IQ and EQ’.

Ms. Richa Gulati, quoting from Edward De Bono observed ‘the downturn provided us all a necessity to innovate’. She saw credibility in a fusion between ‘Conventional cost management solutions and ‘creative cost management solutions’. She commented on ‘gearing for the upturn, challenges in sustaining employee engagements and retention’. She concluded with the key message ‘think new, think different’.

Mr. Punit, in his passion filled exuberant display of debunking platitudes, shared with us the story of Indian Armed Forces; their readiness to adversities and their celebrations of the same. He noted ‘Armed forces embrace adversities, how many organizations can cross their chests and proudly say that they have been waiting for the bad times’.

Professor Sriram brought the day’s proceedings to an end with ‘vote of thanks’. He expressed his sincere thanks to all the keynote speakers of the day, guests and the HR Conclave team.

 

K. Ashok Vardhan Shetty, IAS, Principal Secretary, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Govt. of Tamil Nadu on “Management and Insights from Machiavelli and Shakespeare”

The speaker opened the session with a humorous quote made by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru; slightly paraphrased, Nehru said “Indian Civil Service is neither Indian nor civil and not much of a service either”. Mr. Shetty contented that the management studies of the present times are a mere mirror images of the poets, play writers and philosophers of the past. He noted that the great thinkers of the past have ruminated, conferred and confuted the happenings of the most bizarre and inexplicable traits of human behaviors throughout their lives. History is a manifestation of his contention. He opined that the present management dogmas are clouded and embellished with fashionable jargons, but shredded to core they are but the very principles the great thinkers have proffered on the progeny.

Quoting the Italian Philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli, Mr. Shetty observed that the CEOs, leaders and managers of today are but merely the kings and princes of the times of Machiavelli, and hence, he asserted thus ‘the studies of Machiavelli and Shakespeare, in their truest and most accessible parts are not only pleasurable and immensely delightful to study and reflect upon, but also uniquely insightful for management students’.  In a different context, he quoted Machiavelli’s reply to question “Whether it is better for a prince to be loved or feared” and noted that it is important that leaders are both feared and loved, but care has to be taken that leaders are not feared to the extent that fear turns into hatred.

In reference to Machiavelli’s reply to the question “which is preferable: a good commander with a weak army or a weak army with a good commander”, Mr. Shetty remarked that ‘an organization with a good CEO and inferior subordinates is better than inferior CEO with good subordinates’. Extending the Philosopher’s train of thought from 1531 A.D to the present times, he quoted Machiavelli “In times of difficulty men of merit are sought after, but in easy times it is not men of merit, but such as have riches and powerful relations that are most in favor”. The speaker drew startling parallels of the quote with the Indian cricket team’s persistence on Rahul Dravid’s inclusion in the team when the team is in dire straits, but immediately dispensing him after the passage of the tough time.

The speaker’s powerful reflection on the Italian philosopher ended with quoting the lesson for which Machiavelli is thought of as cunning and deceitful-“A prince must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves. Those that wish to be only lions do not understand this. Therefore, a prudent ruler ought not to keep faith when by so doing it would be against his interest, and when the reasons which made him bind himself no longer exist. If men were all good, this precept would not be a good one; but as they are bad, and would not observe their faith with you, so you are not bound to keep faith with them”.

Quoting Shakespeare “O, it is excellent to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant”, Mr. Shetty noted that CEOs, leaders and managers all alike have an innate predilection; to show an affinity towards power. He advised us to skillfully avoid becoming a prey to the suffocating brilliance of ‘power’ in manipulating the animal instincts in us. In reference to Hamlet “Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be
one man picked out of ten thousand”, the speaker opined that the world at large is beguiling and seductive of murky and conspiratorial activities. He continued and added that material discomfort can be fashionably articulated and framed into an excuse for not taking decisions. In this context, he quoted from Hamlet “To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer”.

Mr. Shetty concluded his investigating discourse of current management dogmas with the weight of philosophers and play writers of yester years in his presentation; he ended with a quote from Chanakya “Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing”.

He advised us to cease from deferring decisions and suggested books for further reading.

Mr. Satya Prabhakar, CEO of Sulekha.com on Entrepreneurship and Business Management

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 02 September 2009, Mr. Satya Prabhakar in his passion filled lecture shared with the Patriots (class of 2010), lessons on Entrepreneurship and Business Management. His lecture was a muse, a ride through the corridors of philosophers; it was as if we were eavesdropping on the greatest thinkers of the civilization involved in a colloquial debate. The quotes that we were presented were each channels of profundity, the speaker in his calm demeanor debunked the clichés and filled life into the poetical treatise on Entrepreneurship.

Sulekha.com is the winner of “Design Lion at Cannes 2009”, “Best Indian Local Search for the year 2008”. Mr. Prabhakar shared with us the masterpiece visual advertisement- “Arjuna the Archer” that won the prestigious award at Cannes.

Mr. Prabhakar sharing his views on Entrepreneurship quoted Warren Tercy- “Civilization marches on the shoulders of Entrepreneurs”. He noted that the road to entrepreneurship is a daunting task and added “it is as if you are swimming upstream all the time, the moment you stop, you know what will happen”. In his lecture he questioned the very fundamental urge of Entrepreneurs and advised us to pursue only if we are sincerely committed to venture into the field. In a different context, he quoted a latin proverb “When there is no wind, row”, and opined that there often is no support for an entrepreneur, but himself. He added “You have no one to blame, but yourself”.

On Management, he began by quoting Jigar Maradabadi, Jalaka and other poets, writers of prose and philopshers. Referring to the challenges ahead for budding entrepreneurs on human resources front, he noted that an employer hopes that the employee should be ‘Independent minded’, ‘self motivated’, ‘having hunger for excellence’. An employee on the other hand affiliates himself with the three 4 letter words ‘work’, ‘love’, ‘hope’. He observed that an employee should be passionate, and should be pursuing multiple channels to quench his thirst for knowledge. Quoting Peter Drucker “What gets measured, gets managed”, he opined that a manager fulfills his job if he succeeds in making the employees feel uncomfortable (by forcing them into unexplored territories) and not by making them feel comfortable (by feeding them with mundane daily routines).

The lecture with overtones of quotes and air of philosophy ended with MR. Prabhakar quoting Mohammad Iqbal that says ‘train yourself to get what you want’.

 

 

 

Lonely Warriors- in praise of “Karma Yoga” project

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her cheeks drained out of red now looked dull and stigmatic. Her complexion that of dark brown, patches of sunburns on the back of her neck appeared as if she rouged the nape. With the heap of clothes by her side, sitting on a mound of sand, she began speaking. The remains of tobacco stained her teeth to the extent that her teeth were indistinguishable from gums. The mouth was incapable of maintaining symmetry; her lips slipped off to a side, cheeks lax. With the contents of her mouth dripping from the slipping lips, she spoke.

So emaciated the boy was, yet so curious of our work; he walked us all towards his abode. Flakes of dry cow dung lay here and there near the entrance; the walls were painted in patches of cow dung, blotted in pale brown circles. A woman was chasing a buffalo for its dung, she scooped it with bare hands after the benign creature obliged and mixed it with water in a pot. Then she proceeded to spray it all over the floor, it perhaps disturbed the sleeping little dog, for he stood up on his feet, leant on his fore legs and stretched his body. Shook off the water, he pawed his nose, nibbled at his feet, and proceeded to lick his wounds.

The man’s arms and feet were checkered with rashes, he was diseased, and the family was recovering from the last harvest season. The head of the family was incapable of working, and they were merely living off the mother’s daily wages. The man was loosing hair, his scalp ragged with lonely stalks of hair that drooped low with incapacitation, one here and one there. Those lonely warriors were the only remains; the man was dying a slow, painful and agonizing death.

Smitten with anger and fury of kids pelting stones at him, the mad dog bit an old lady who happened to sit by her clay stove cooking meals for her husband. The villagers apprehended the mad dog, but by then the casualties increased and a baby girl in her attempt to escape the rabid dog fell off into a ditch. Badly bruised, the baby died and presently we were conversing with the hapless mother. The bereaved family devastated as they were, could not afford to cremate the baby’s dead body beside her grandmother’s grave. And, the villagers complained.

The roof was swollen; it was drooping down under its own weight.  The light bulb suspended from the roof oscillated with the slightest of breeze, spider webs ominously besieged the roof from four corners extending as if they were tentacles of an octopus.  The place smelled of wet mud; air thick with stench and floor uneven with stagnated water of the recent showers. An old lady sitting in the corner by a rock was grinding nuts; she would fill the neatly carved gaping hole in the rock with nuts and grind them up with a wooden shaft.  Upon enquiry, she proceeded to explain her menu for the night. She would dissolve the pulverized remains of the grinded powder in a tumbler full of cold water, mix it with rice and relish the delicacy. The family was quite surprised that I did not take notice of the celebrations; the younger son returned from the city after six months, he works as a repairman in a garage.

These are some of the stories that we confront every week on our visit to villages. Great Lakes’ Karma Yoga project adopts few villages and works on projects with utmost sincerity. Students, as a part of the project are exposed to the depth of derelict rural lives.

A student driven Karma Yoga Committee guided by Dr. Venkat R. Krishnan (Director, Yale-Great Lakes Centre for Management Research) is co-ordinating the efforts of 260 PGPM students in 12 nearby villages with the help of IGCAR (Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research) Kalpakkam. Students carry out comprehensive activities like Educational Assistance, Career Counselling, Business Consultation (to Self-Help Groups), Waste and Water Resource Management, Rain Water Harvesting and Health Awareness.

The purpose of Karma Yoga project is to make students aware of their social responsibilities and to channel their energies in helping the underprivileged. However in this process, numerous management lessons on constraint optimization, people and resource management, innovation and leadership are learnt, which create strongly beneficial and worthwhile impressions on students and subtly transform their character towards higher ideals on a long-term basis .

Romantic Library of Great Lakes

After reading for a while, she lifts her gaze away from the book spread open before her and looks through the glass window, ruminating, as if in a trance she continues to stare into the window; sound of someone shifting in his chair, of someone coughing apologetically, of people murmuring hoping that the encumbering silence would eat up their hush-hush voices; few exchange glances with the ones sitting beside them, and as if a centuries old dictum is sculpted inside the library, the others reciprocate with countenances affirmative, understanding and briefly diagnosing the material laid open before the protagonist.

Some one flings the door open letting in sound of the helter-skelter of people lodging their bags in the pigeonholes, of someone shrewdly pulling out books to return them, men and women involved in haste discussions drawing them to an abrupt end as they proceed to enter the library.  

And, she enters holding a book close to her heart as if in a lovely embrace, but parts with it at the counter. As she passes by, the sound of her frock caressing the floor brings the lady staring into the window back to this world, she stares at the other, and both blush to put an end to the awkward moment; she reaches out for a magazine, flips the papers over before sitting herself on a chair that creaks softly with her sitting on it, and someone sitting lonely in the corner with his pen fixated on the paper lifts his gaze and stares in the direction of the ruffle, but, caught by the suddenness of the lady returning his gaze as if in denial of an acute blame insinuated upon her, he shifts his gaze towards the entrance.

As the time for dinner closes in, someone coughs incessantly from upstairs and out rightly dispenses with the excuse in the end; stealing glances now turn into enquiring gestures, slow and brief shifting in chairs now turns into rapid scuttling; sound of newspapers feverishly turned over by famished fellows, of someone heaving aloud, for the timely culmination of his reading; people now talking across to the ones beside them, at first in phrases, then in interludes of references to the books and magazines lying before them, eventually into a metamorphosis of a subject of interest, perhaps about a novel, or about a celebrity, or about a movie, music…

Someone hurriedly climbs upstairs, for he has forgotten his room keys; someone dejected in demeanor looks around, for he barely finished jotting down material for his project; someone replaces the books into their shelves, as if he has an innate dislike to empty spaces in the library shelves; and the men and women exit the library towards the dinner hall with the sound of photocopying machine sinking in the background.

The Library hall at Great Lakes holds a resonating charm of the traditional reading rooms of the yester years. Near the entrance are two PCs leaving one with an impression of modernity; as one approaches the reception desk, the sight of new arrivals is riveting. But as one leaves the superficial aura of modernity, the hall extends both ways deeply into shelves with interludes of closets so fine and beckoning that one cannot escape the impulse of sitting in one and in the newly found loneliness, slowly shed off cloaks of modernity and descend into the ulterior halls of the nineteenth century.  

Campus Dedication Ceremony by Deputy Chief Minister M.K. Stalin

Dignitaries:

M.K.Stalin, Honourable Deputy Chief Minister, Government of Tamil Nadu
T.M. Anbarasan, Honourable Minister for Labour, Government of Tamil Nadu
K.S. Sripathi, Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu
Santosh K. Misra, District Collector, Kancheepuram District

Dr. Bala V. Balachandran, Founder and Dean of Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai opened the event’s proceedings with emotion filled lines of a Tamil poem. Addressing the guests on the stage and the huge gathering of the evening, he commented on the school’s success over the years since its inception in 2005. In his short and succinct talk, he expressed his deepest conviction at presenting the school as the hub for ‘Marketing’ with emphasis on ‘research’ and ‘business-readiness’. His endeavour for ‘co-creation of value’ with society transpired into his promise of admitting 50 underprivileged students with good GRE, GMAT scores.

Mr. Santosh K Misra, District Collector, Kancheepuram District, recalled that Kancheepuram district has always been the center for education. Today, with Great Lakes in Kancheepuram, he expressed his utmost confidence that Tamil Nadu would emerge the global hub for IT, Automotive and Electronic sectors. He concluded “With this background of Government leadership, I take greatest delight in welcoming Great Lakes to begin attracting students from around the globe”.

Mr. K. S. Sripathi, Chief Secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu, looked bemused and flabbergasted that in a brief span of just 16 months, Great Lakes has built a 16 acres campus. He commented on the school’s performance at DHL competition last year, and observed that it is time for ‘Reverse Brain Drain’. He expressed his confidence that students, entrepreneurs and global leaders would begin setting up their homes in India, for India is more attractive today than what the affluent nations of the west had been for a long time now.

Mr. T.M. Anbarasan, Honourable Minister for Labour, Government of Tamil Nadu, noted that ‘Dr. Bala has a golden hand, everything he touches turns into gold’. He continued ‘It’s a great achievement for Dr. Bala and for all the Indians that the idea of Great Lakes has materialized into reality at an astonishing speed and has emerged more powerful than its competitors’.

Mr. M.K. Stalin, Deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, expressed his state of disbelief that he was still in Chennai, for the amphitheater, the atmosphere of the evening, the huge gathering inside the beautiful campus appeared something infinitely superior to him. He noted that Great Lakes philosophy is unique; the school delicately fuses together the learning from around the globe with the cultural edicts. Distinguished Professors from abroad come to teach here, he put the school up in the pantheon along with IIMs, IITs, NITs and BITS. He commented on the Government’s initiatives on Education, and promised to be helpful in the progress of the school.

Professor Sriram, Executive Director of Great Lakes, in his ‘vote of thanks’ commented on the astonishing momentum with which the school proceeded in the last five years. He saw the event as the culmination of the five years of conscientious and hard work. He expressed pleasure in the fact that Great Lakes has put Chennai and Tamil Nadu on the Global map of education. The event finished with Professor Sriram promising the guests, Deputy CM in particular, that the school would, under the guidance and support of the state’ rise high to break barriers and lead Tamil Nadu to the newer worlds.