Sparsh: Development in a Trimester of rural management

Sparsh: Development in a Trimester of rural management: John Stuart Mill is right here: there is no development, democratic or economic, without an educated citizenry. Hence with this statement, ...

14th Week @ XIMB

14th Week --- 11th September to 17th September

11th September - OB and RDA exams are over. Hence, there is formal closure of first trimester with few assignments.

There is a difference between fresher and experienced student in the college regarding money. While both of them know how to spend money cautiously, the experienced candidate know how to accumulate money little by little for desired product. A pearl of wisdom from Partha.

12th September - One more installment of fees paid with my hard earned money. Missed SRP presentation due to headache. Demand Draft for 2nd trimester is ready.

A special Talk given by Mr. Anshu Gupta who is the CEO of GOONJ (http://goonj.org/).

A brilliant and inquisitive mind, he studied journalism as well as Advertising & Public Relations from one of the premier Institute in India (Indian Institute of Mass Communication), and then went on to do a Masters in Economics. While still a graduate student in 1991, he traveled to Uttarkashi, North India after a major earthquake. Missing out on his classes, he lived in tents for days and helped in the relief efforts. This was his first real exposure to the problems of rural masses in far off parts of the country, something that shocked his urban sensibilities.

He emphasized on the difference between discarding and donating of clothes. To make clothing a matter of concern for Indians is a big leap forward by him. His emphasis on taboo subject of sanitary napkins in the context of India was heart wrenching. We middle and elite class wait for disaster to help people. Why ? Such a tough question was never asked to me in the life. I was speechless at the end of the talk. He has asked some tough questions from himself. Why can't I ?

13th September - Nothing special; Written a general blog post at Sparsh titling : Development in a Trimester of rural management.

14th September - 9-9:30 in the class. Tired and super low on energy level. SRM lecture brushed the concept of paradigm shift and black swan.

15th September - ITM is an interesting. French Fries at Pal Heights are not so good but the com:)

16th September - MEARS and FSA are going out of hand. A team from Wageningen University was in campus on a collaborative project with XIMB. Its focus was on “The System of Rice Intensification as a Socio-Technical Movement in India”

One good video seen today; Economist Yasheng Huang compares China to India, and asks how China's authoritarian rule contributed to its astonishing economic growth -- leading to a big question: Is democracy actually holding India back?



17th September - PROJM and ITM class were just pastime. Re-read a research paper - Rural Management Education in India: A Retrospect by M.S. Sriram.

Talk by Ajit Mohapatra, CMD, Kalinga Engineering Ltd. on Leadership. He started with LPG ( Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) and later moved to non risk taking capability of public sector and bureaucracy. Government Secretariat was termed as grave of all great ideas !

13th Week @ XIMB

13th Week --- 4th September to 10th September

4th September - Sunday. A relaxed day in the life of a XIMB student in the whole weekend. A good video seen today on talent and merit, thanks to Namit Arora Sir (Shunya)



5th September - A holiday before exam... like a silence before storm.

6th September - FR quiz on this day.

Talks by person from World Bank and NRLM on Rural Livelihoods: Challenges and Opportunities.

I was selected in Kurukshetra  Expressions game whose committee was first launched in 1995. Hence, it has the distinction of being the first game committee of XIMB. Unlike other B schools which look to outsource the game committee framework to a professional third party, Kurukshetra is the brain child of XIMB's own systems genius Dr. Gopal Krishna Nayak. The sophisticated and solid structure of the game is its strength.

7th September - ME: A tough subject is over with an average exam.

8th September - LTB and COMM exams over.

9th September - SADA and FR exams are over. I commented after FR paper :- Two columns of Balance Sheet are like parallel lines. Never meant to meet with each other :P

10th September - QM paper is over today. Feeling a paradigm shift in the academical values today while preparing for the an exam on SUNDAY !

12th Week @ XIMB

12th Week --- 28th August to 3rd September

28th August - Sunday. No work and missed Envision organized by XSYS. SRP work finished today.

29th August - Thanks to Partha and AP that I landed up in the class for right time.

30th August - Every teacher is in hurry to finish the course.

31st August - Eid Holiday !

1st September - Ganesh Pooja Holiday ! Lunch food had came from ISKCON. There are students who didn't know how to eat from their hands. It was hilarious to watch them eating from 2 fingers :P

2nd September - A long day to get tired. 5 classes a day. I was in the part of 2 team and one personal presentation. Goofed up in one slide and mistype "blind spot" as "blood spot";

3rd September - ME test was done on the basis of pure chances. But QM presentation was superb. Happy with the positive feedback of sir and my team. Gave feedback of each subject and teacher. Indra Nooyi and Ela Bhatt were chosen as examples of woman leaders in LTB class.

11th Week @ XIMB

11th Week --- 21th August to 27th August

21st August - Birthday. Sunday. Batch took me in the air from room to the hostel front. Love you RM 2011-2013 BATCH.

22nd August - Nothing special but exhaustive day in classes.Launch of Spardha was awesome. Theme waschosen from starting scene of Gulaal. Mashaal and Gulaal added the colour in the show. Literally, it stirred the sentiments of the people.

23rd August - Mother Teresa and remembered the book The missionary position by Christopher Hitchens that dealt with a frank expose of the Teresa cult. Learning about Financial sheet is quite good. Feeling happy with the content of FR course ; Shadow placement committee work.Website discussion. A form was float to know expectation of the batch internship and job expectations. Launch of LAXIM 1 ( lol !)

24th August - COMM classroom discussions were awesome : Ethical sensivity, whistle-blower in company, Is business a commercial or social activity, spiritualism, focus on deadlines and Incentives vs Karma theory of work. Learned that take chance for choice. Rupika is reaaly good speaker on public platform !

25th August - Talk on rural marketing by Kalpana Kaul (Raina); LITTE preparation for dinner. Long chat with Deopriya madam, she has amazing knowledge of poetry.

26th August - Never make question in sequential manner for survey. It should capture
holistic approach. That I learned from OB lecture. SADA video presentation. It was damn wrong evaluation. Emotion matters more than facts and statistics.

COMM discussion were deep. Batch shows hidden maturity. Take 2 minute timefor yourself. On learning about Economic rent, I remembered Atanu Dey analysis of 2G spectrum case.

27th August - Red Letter Day of my life ! Missed class ME,soft skill lesson and Envision 2011. Gone to temple :)

Very nice song by Manhar from Movie 'Aap To Aise Na The' that came in mine mind today.


Learning of Week : You don't stop asking question if you don't get answer.

10th Week @ XIMB

उम्मीद वक्त का सबसे बड़ा सहारा है, गर हौसला है तो हर मौज में किनारा है। -'साहिर' लुधियानवी

10th Week --- 14th August to 20th August

14th August - Bike came to Bhubaneswar ! SRC cordially invited everyone for the candle march tonight in honour of country's Independence Day.

15th August - First Holiday of the Trimester ! Not attended flag hosting ceremony due to sleep. Spent time with children at orphanage for SRP project. That was much better way of celebrating independence.

16th August - Summer Internship Process started today. I was busy man today as a shadow Placecom member. Literally run 100m for a cup of coffee to HR. Gaurav Anand, Joslin Jose, Abhijeet and Anshul were finally selected in this agri input company.

17th August - Not much happening day. Sportscom Applicants were invited and most ; Yogesh Joshi was finally selected in any committee.

18th August - Robert Mulhal of Lucca Leadership gives a brilliant interactive session. He pointed out about : Awareness to Serve and Everybody is leader.In,Shoelace game was really good. Then, there was RDA presentation; We presented our ppt on Peru's famous NGO Flora Tristan;

Check this video for inspiration presented by Robert.


19th August - Learned in OB-1 lecture that about deep impact of the repetition of micro stresses and Techno stress. F M Sahoo asked us : Never do any work on holiday!

It was World Humanitarian Day; S. Parsuraman, Director, TISS, Mumbai and Mr. Mihir Bhatt, Founder, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI), Ahmedabad were there in the list of speakers. Seminar revolved around disaster events that has impacted India. More details here on SRC blog.

20th August - RDA quiz was there on Saturday.Pretty good show for whole batch; Not attended launch of Kurushetra. Came in the Game Committee Defaulters.

Learning of the week - New term learned this week Servant Leadership.

9th Week @ XIMB

9th Week --- 7th August to 13th August

7th August - I opened my eyes in Jharkhand. And our train reached at Jamshedpur in the morning. I remembered Udaan movie.

8th August - Returned from XLRI,Jamshedpur in the afternoon. Mr. Inir Pinheiro an alumnus of XIMB RM addressed us tonight. He is a Social Entrepreneur, Founder of Grassroutes. His emphasis on dreams, networking and sharing ideas with role models was the core of the talk. Yes, he told about the sacrifices made in personal and professional life throughout this 5 years.

MBA schools are over hyped placement agencies. That line completely knocked me down.

9th August - Biresh Sahoo is an awesome person and definitely an outlier. Today, he compared h index of the research papers in the microeconomics class. None of the teacher stands near to him in XIMB. He unveiled the mask of sophistication in the research field of many eminent names in XIMB.Research gives one frustration while teaching gives money. Only conclusion that I can draw from the Indian education system. I am planning to do same case study for my previous Alma mater.  FR class is quite interactive in nature.

10th August - CEO of Srijan and Ashoka fellow- Mr. Ved Arya was cancelled. Another fellow from Srijan, an IRMA graduate gives a very balanced talk. As per him, it is necessary to get your hands dirty in young age with field work.

11th August - We reached Gram Vikas, Bahrahampur after 2 hours of train and bus journey. Have got the preview of the organization.Gram Vikas uses water and sanitation as a cleansing force for societal ills, and an in-roads to social equity and holistic village empowerment and development.


12th August - I have the chance to have field trip to a tribal village in Orissa. 30 odd families of Kondha tribe were there. A memorable day of my life. Happy with the performance and participation of the group. My group consist of Sreevidya, Suma, Vandana, Vaibhav, Dr. Jyoti , Joslin, Nafis, Gaurish and me. Sad with the immature behaviour of my batch.

दिल ना उम्मीद तो नही, नाकाम ही तो है, लंबी है गम की शाम, मगर शाम ही तो है. --फैज अहमद 'फैज

13th August - Our batch missed the breakfast due to late night work. It hurts Peppin Sir. I am too feeling like guilty of crime in wasting food. Joe told us about demystification of various myths propagated by social conditioning. Returned back to Bhubaneshwar.

हजार बर्क गिरें, लाख आंधियां उठें, वह फूल खिल के रहेंगे, जो खिलने वाले हैं। --साहिर लुधियानवी

8th Week @ XIMB

8th Week --- 31st July to 6th August

31st July - "Teach for India" came for a Presentation at XIM, Bhubaneswar. Sunday Morning was good. SAMBANDH 2011 kicked started in the evening.

वो इंतजार था जिसका ये वो सहर तो नहीं, ये वो सहर तो नहीं जिसकी आरजू लेकर.

I remembered this line today. The batch is doing awesome in dance, song, games and every extra curricular activities. Yet no body is uttering a single word either about B Plan or Social Entrepreneurship. What a batch of under performers. Anyone's role model define the horizon of his/her aspirations. Our batch is choosing wrong role models for rural management programme.

1st Aug - SADA class was good today because there was discussion on Ideology. I loved one quote mentioned in slide. "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why are they poor, they call me a Communist."

Pandit Shri Hari Prasad Chaurasia conducted a Hindustani Classical Flute Recital today. It was mesmerizing and worth experiencing. His consummate artistry and inimitable style held the audience spell bound for 2 hours. As they say : The flute is the symbol of the spiritual call - The call of the divine love.

Sports Committee Launch also happened. Another day in XIMB is over. But I will quit alcohol and cigarettes. As in the words of Suma - Music has an overwhelming effect to change the mood.

2nd Aug - XQuizzite Launch Quiz. One team used smart phones for quiz that was quite sad.

3rd Aug - ME (Managerial Economics) marks came. 3.5 out of 10. Not bad for me.

4th Aug - LTB lecture was a disaster for the class.

5th Aug - RDA quiz is disaster for the batch. Rest of the day was passed in relaxing way. Milind Gete is upset over the pedagogy employed here. I agree with him. Ours batch is under-performing despite of huge potential.

6th Aug -Finally, the pending initiation of Field Familiarity Program by Kajri Mishra today. No group presented the ppt but we have a talk delivered by a fantastic person named Joe Madith. Joe Madith founded Gram Vikas in 1979; He make a few sarcastic/formal comment on Shambhu sir, students and XIMB in his speech but that was quite well articulated in the nature.

Social entrepreneur Joe Madiath, founder and executive director of Gram Vikas tells about his life to NDTV.



Joe Madith told about his life. He was involved heavily in students politics and expelled from several schools during early adolescent. He is an alumnus of Loyola College Chennai. He had done cycle tour of India covering each district.  He was working on Bio Gas (Bullshit) and then he shifted to sanitation (Full-shit) programme. He doesn't believe in change but complete transformation and there was a lot stress on Human dignity in his speech. That part touched me. I always felt that lack of dignity of physical labour is rampant in India. Despite of his left oriented thought process, he is working as CEO of Gram Vikas.

Two anecdotes are especially mention-able. First, George Bush sit on the last bench in the classroom. That was pointed by his professor in Harvard Business School. Hence, an open warning was given to backbenchers. Second, he was offered a meeting and cup of tea after several protests by British consulate in Chennai. While American consulate asked his principal for prosecuting him to due to his non violent protests against Vietnam war and equal rights for Afro Americans. A good example of difference between policies of two nation in a third world country...

Lesson Learned : First, poor people don't want miserable solution. They want the best like any other humans. Second, authority is not the source of truth. Third and last, exclusion of many as birthrights by few is an orthodox practice prevailed all over India.

Social entrepreneur Joe Madiath, founder and executive director of Gram Vikas, tells Global X what happened when, at age 11, he tried to unionize the workers who were employed by his very own father. Within two months, he was in boarding school!

I am going XLRI for sports meet today in the night. Don't ask me which game that I didn't know either.

7th Week @ XIMB

7th Week --- 24th July to 30th July

24th July - Sunday.

Derek Sivers: Keep your goals to yourself

After hitting on a brilliant new life plan, our first instinct is to tell someone, but Derek Sivers says it's better to keep goals secret ! Ted Video

25th July - Leadership & Team Building (LTB) Mid term paper at 6:00 PM

26th July - Managerial Economics (ME) Mid term paper at 3:00 PM

27th July - Rural Financial Institutions & Markets (RFIM) Mid term paper at 3:00 PM

28th July - Quantitative Methods (QM)Mid term paper at 3:00 PM.

29th July - A day started with quiz and further class of Individuals in Organisation (OB-I); There was meet of Placecom committee and discussion is classified secret, not to come in the public blog.

A special Talk delivered by Dr. Kundan Kumar (Assistant Professor, Dept. of Geography & Centre for Environment, University of Toronto, Canada), on "Climate Justice" at 3:45 PM

A guest lecture by Dr Dindo Campilan from Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)on 29th July 2011 at 6:30 PM

SAXIM Launch happened at night with the motto of Alcohol doesn't console, it doesn't fill up anyone's psychological gaps, all it replaces is the lack of God; There was No PPT, No FLASH and No MANDATORY ATTENDANCE; Only JLT;

30th July - The headbanging, dancing , dehydration and deprivation of sleep is seen on everyone face. Long talk with Saket 'Camus' Vardhan in the morning.

Team SRC (Social Responsibility Cell) X-STAGE launched at 10:30 PM. Talent Hunt 2011 that gives a performing arts competition (on stage). Singing sensations, dancing dynamos, adroit actors and performing prodigies were all there. Yogesh with his adrenaline driven speech showed me necessity of guts despite of various opposition and boos.

6th Week @ XIMB

6th Week --- 17th July to 23rd July

17th July - Sunday. I was selected in shadow Placecom committee of 11 members. SANIDHYA opened us an insight into diverse talents of our seniors in the evening. Almost negligible presence of faculty was above my head.

18th July - I become a default member of RMAX by securing admission in PGP-RM course at XIMB. Rural Manager's Association of XIMB (RMAX) is a registered student body which caters to the specific needs of a rural management student. Rural Managers Association of XIMB (RMAX) was started in 2003. Gramotsava, the rural marketing fair started in 2006.

"The real source of market promise is not the wealthy few in the developing world, or even the emerging middle-income consumers. It is the billions of aspiring poor who are joining the market economy for the first time." - C.K.Prahalad (Author of 'The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid')

Whole day was gone in COMM presentation. I really understand today why the level of managers in communication is such high here. Only Solo reason : Good faculty. I choose the less traveled path and I pledged to make difference by connecting urban market with rural customer.

19th July - Placecom work kicks off. LTB classroom was fun as I volunteered for a group activity. Learned that - “In business, you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate” Chester L. Karrass.

20th July - Tag with names written are distributed to us for being monitored in the class by XIMB. It is degrading and ; People are taking photo of each other without understanding the ulterior nature of the act. I am completely against this tagging;

21st July - Seniors tried to sell XIMB T shirts; Cost/per T-Shirt was offered Rs 500. Too much fight between Gaurish with Divya and Drasti has crashed my mind. The communication group is on the verge of breaking point. Me and Diksha are working as Peace makers. I discovered my USP as conflict and negotiation skill.

22nd July - Urgent batch meet at 3:10 PM ensured that people become serious for other Interest Committees. RMAX Shadow Committee Interviews are going on today.

23rd July - Saturday was welcoming us with presentation in communication and a quiz in Microeconomics. I gave 1 minute presentation on Azamgarh. Last class of RFIM - Nothing is intelligent, everything just needs time and mind. Saturday Night was welcomed with Rollywood event. This is done for seniors by 1st yearites. Guitarist, Dancers and Singers just created the atmosphere of joy. I did't drink alcohol in the night instead preferred  to watch Harry Potter 7th part.

5th Week @ XIMB

5th Week --- 10th July to 16th July

10th July- Walked out in the night before Viva session for SADA group assignment work. Kudos and Thanks to Prateek Singh and Parthasarthy CR for supporting me in this tough situation. 20 people boycotted while rest of the batch enjoyed entertaining time till 5 AM with seniors. I am still proud of my decision as they say in English : A Man Do What He Has to Do !

11th July - Necessity for me to improve in verbal English became exposed in front of whole class. Got two valuable lessons that rational acts depend on emotional memories and assumption is the mother of all fuckups.

12th July - Missed Jogging today. I was literally scared in ME class due to the questions of Biresh Sir. Attended Student Executive Council (SEC) and Place-com meeting. I have to write SOP and prepare Resume for this. Seniors have lot of energy in them; Hats off to them :)

13th July - The Bhaina Song was mailed to us; Presentation of IRC, Alcom and Illuminatix in the night. Volleyball Court inaugration was done but our team lost to BM guys due to lack of proper smasher.

14th July - RFIM class was cancelled and the whole day gone in preparing for the RFIM quiz. But I recalled a very old nazm today : चमन में इख्तिलाफे रंगो-बू से बात बनती है. हम ही हम हैं, तो क्या हम हैं. तुम ही तुम हो, तो क्या तुम हो।

15th July - Friday; RFIM test was disaster for me. Deja Vu of engineering days came back. I was so disgusted on my own performance. I dropped out of JAM session and my teammate Gautam became angry for this unprofessional behavior. There was skit at each block where performance of our team was awesome. Typical Raju Srivastava act of making non living objects talk was a brilliant idea. Rishab, Prateek, Gaurav , Shreyash, RaFa, Shrey, Srijit, Yogesh, Chandan and Snehashish performed brilliantly. That was followed by Daru Party. RS and Vodka were fine but rum became too much for everyone in the humid condition. Still I was in the few last men standing list. Amazed to know that Shivam and Piyush don't drink.

16th July - Woke up at 1:45 PM; There was an alumni meeting with Mr. Anupam Satpathy who is currently working with DSCL. He was also the RM Secretary for Batch 0f 2008 - 10. JAM Finals result came quite late night; Kshitij and Vaibhav secured overall 2nd position. Really feeling proud of them. Interview for shadow committee of RM Placecomm was held at 11:30 PM. Gaurish helped me a lot in interview preparation

Was scheduled 7th but given chance at 4th place. Missing viva was main point of interview process. All 6 people were really good in framework of the knowledge and responsibilities. I was asked question from facebook profile to blog. I forget during interview session about USP written in SOP that were Integrity and unbiased nature.

Saw Delhi Belly in the morning 2AM ; Bhag D K Bose exciting. What make this week special was that I was questioned by two friends on my support to reservation of SC/ST ? Old tantrum of Poor Brahmin student was told to me... But there are no judgement only optimum choices in management, life and development. Doing everything right is an unrealistic goal that I can promise to you

4th Week @ XIMB

4th Week --- 3rd July to 9th July

3rd July: What a grand start of the week. Birthday of Kasturi Lal celebrated among great enthusiasm and pleasure. I was lucky one selected for accepting the fake proposal scene. Feeling lucky :)

It was followed by Cricket Match at 1:00 AM at Lawn Tennis Court. I also started jogging from today with Parthsarthy CR to improve fitness.

4th July: Class of Societal Analysis & Development Alternatives (SADA) with the topic Power of Imagination was innovative and entertaining in its approach. I saw the infinite possibilities of the words that can change the world in a blank page. I learned about Concept of Interbeing by Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh and Technology With A Human Face by E. F. Schumacher.

There was a special talk arranged by XIMB administration on biodiversity and conservation. The most absurd part was that only Rural management students were invited.  Does the responsibility for conservation of nature and awareness about poverty lies on our shoulders alone ? Either Business management and Human Resource Management will not be befitted by such talks or  its out of their ways of doing business. I hope that this should not be repeated again by XIMB administration.

Special talk on "Environment and Democracy: Cases on Biodiversity and conservation" by Pankaj Sekhsaria.

Pankaj Sekhsaria is a member of the environmental action group, Kalpavriksh and in based in Pune. His main responsibility is editing, publishing and distributing the Protected Area (PA)Mr. Sekhsaria says, “We point the finger at the tribal carrying firewood on her head when our own aluminum-hungry lifestyles are the real cause of forest loss.”  Only 2% of Indians invest in stock market but the whole newspaper is filled with news about them. Parallel world exist all around us. There is a difference between low carbon foot print of tribal way of living and Use, Consume and Throw  lifestyle of us.  It is about the right of way of life that is more sustainable and environment friendly. There is fundamental paradox of our notion of development. Development for whom and on whose cost ? 

-Western environmental ethics are mostly post destruction and born out of guilt.

-Estimation of Life cycle (Recycled tax) should be made for each product to internalize the external cost. He talked about TEEB (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity).

He used a specific anthropological word Culture of Language that gives people capacity to engage with intra and inter cultural realm.Students were more focused on making slow and innovative way of integration tribal in them, while speaker was considering tribal and poor as mainstream and us as westerners.

5th July: I lacked the flow in presenting my ideas that became evident during group presentation in Rural Development Administration (RDA)class.

Story of Stuff, Full Version; How Things Work, About Stuff



Today, I became frustrated over unprofessional attitude of few of my batch-mates. Few are considering MBA as an extension of their graduate studies. Work experience should be made mandatory before MBA. We learn more from peers, seniors and environment of the college than to the class room lectures as compared to our cool days graduation.

I even suspect over the selection procedure and criteria of the XIMB rural entrance pro-gramme. There are bulk of people who have no idea of rural or even intent to work with them. Threshold level should be more pushed towards concrete knowledge rather than jargon learnings. Few words like BOP and Inclusive Growth are most abused terms in classroom discussions by people without having any clue about them.

6th July: Have a fair discussion with friends on the vision and mission of XIMB. There are teachers here who are highly aid oriented than preferring trade with poor. Gaurish made a valid point that no one gives a person importance until he/she have some value attached to him/her. We need to create economic value for the people otherwise this game/illusion of development will go on forever. I thought in back of mind that as vote creates political value, how could we create economic value of poor in an economic system?

There was an innocent question asked by one of our batch-mates in an informal discussion with his/her friends : What is difference between slums and villages ? Last night rage became reignited inside me.

7th July: Interaction with seniors goes till 4:30 AM. It was boring and unwanted as per my perspective. Four classes mixed with photo schedule make a hectic day for me. The death news of our 2011 batch Arjit Ghosh was quite depressing and there was gloom all around.

8th July: Personality Test is given in the class of Organizational behavior. I am not spontaneous in the nature but too much analysis is paralysis in decision making. I participated but not selected in Brandstorm 2011 (MAXIM);

9th July: Saturday was a relaxing day. There was talk about Acara challenge; Acara Challenge is a social entrepreneurship event.The Acara Challenge is a unique way for the students to get involved in entrepreneurship and sustainable design for social change.

Quote of the Week : In the words of Alexander Pope, "In faith and hope the world will disagree, But all mankind's concern is charity".

3rd Week @ XIMB

3rd Week --- 26th June to 2 July :

A hectic schedule of classes, assignments and projects.

Watched Manthan. A must watch movie for RM students on White Revolution and luckily was available on xsysserver. Movie is based on a story written jointly by Verghese Kurien (the Father of the White Revolution in India) and director Shyam Benegal.

Nandankanan Trip missed.
Election for Cultural Representative takes place.
Gaurish's decision to stay back was a moral boost for me.
Courier arrived finally with all stuffs.
I am liking XIMB now !!!

Thanks to Mriganka Mondal for this beautiful protest song.

2nd Week @ XIMB

2nd Week --- 19th June to 25th June :

This week was indulged in studying, meetings and alumni talks. Room no. 219 was named as General Headquarters Rawalpandi and Room no. 216 Incubation center for RM 2011-2013 batch !

Library Card was issued but no books taken by me!
Laptop was repaired but no further use in Education !
Courier of the Bags and accessories was delayed for 3 more days !

SRP ( Socially Relevant Projects): kicked off. A visit to the field changes the thinking pattern of people. Looking forward towards it.

Communication Class : What a class and a fantastic teacher. Loved the video recording session. The feedback was a learning experience of lifetime.

Rural Development and Administration Class : So much of pre-read material helping me this time.

Other subjects are quite interesting. But the high point is pedagogy of the teaching. Never have experience of such an open environment and teachers acting as facilitators. Pitched for fist time in an election but lost to a better competitor Gautam Bhut. Difference between vision and trend in XIMB - RM needs to be taken care of.

On critical issue, the batch still lacks a good intellectual background and diversity. The experience of ground work is there but an acute understanding of the developmental problem is somewhat missing in freshers. Sometimes, I have even doubt on the selection of few student in this course [Questions like improvement of "GDP of the village" worries me :P]. The people with good intentions but unwilling to learn the complex answers slightly irritates me. I hope that things will change for better in the future.

Quote of the Week : It's me who make the difference.

1st Week @ XIMB

1st Week --- 14th June to 18th June

14th June : In XIMB at Bhubaneswar. Hostel allotted at Fr. Bogaert Residence.

15th June : Purchasing accessories for room and interaction with new people.

16th June : Orientation program was like warning session of coming storms. Briefing of Library also given. Hostel Briefing looks like ethics preaching.

17th June : Missed Information Technology Briefing. Ice Breaking and Living in XIMB session rocked. I was in Group C : Catch us if you can. Elephant drawn by team looks like on steroid in one body part and malnourished in another. Truly X- elephant. Men's Hostel Dining Room No.2 started with good meal. First time girls come up in our hostel! Briefing of Conduct and discipline, course feedback and mentors were precise and seemed strict. Given an inspiration for pursuing constructive criticism.

18th June : Case discussion over "Questioning to Learn" was interesting. Watched four videos of XIMB alumni. One Video of Student's vision was presented :



Detail From Youtube : a short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.

Lot of effort was given on "Be What You Are" and "Questioning status quo". Logic, Language and Ethics Triangle as the foundation of education impressed me. Placement talks were quite open and smart. Learned about Father Michael Van Den Bogaert on whose name our hostel is named. More detail about Fr. Bogaert can be obtained here.

Quote of the Week : There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.

# Motivating Managers : A Talk by Fr. Bogaert at IRMA. [PDF Version]