82nd Week@XIMB

82nd Week@XIMB - 30th December to 5th January, 2012

30th December - I stayed true to myself and started preparation for the development sector.

31st December - Why MBA in Rural Management and Engineering? The most cliche and funny answer given these days is 'competitive advantage'.

1st January - I went out to Chilika Lake for a vacationer tour.

2nd January - I missed classes to study for placement purpose. I had a surprise quiz in

3rd January - I was not selected in BRLPS (Jeevika). I studies from the website only but find this document(pdf) quite useful.

4th January - I was not selected in AISECT. I studied and prepared from a compendium on Mission mode projects under NeGP.

5th January - I am posting here the websites that will be useful for exploring data. FAOSTAT, World Bank Data Center, OECD Statistics & Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, India (National Data Warehouse of Official Statistics)

81st Week@XIMB

81st Week@XIMB - 23rd December to 29th December, 2012

23rd December - XIMB stops accepting IRMA scores for rural management program, will now only accept CAT, XAT or CMAT. That is the news rolling over at pagalguy. I don't know its implications. XIMB-RM may succeeds tactically in the eyes of AICTE, but fails strategically in the eyes of applicants in term of its reputation.

Rather than trying to be a person I cannot be - to do this or do that - I went back to reconstruct my own strengths. I had come here for development hence will not go for a high paying (sales/marketing) job.

24th December - CMD, GID and SER class.

It was quite nice to study sociology in GID lecture. Even today, after years of education and modernity, women didn't get the respect that they are entitled to. Yes, low enrollment of girls in this course is quite dramatically low. May be these girls either know everything or just don't want to discuss these issues.

25th December - Christmas is in the town, hence holiday. I had became shadow of the person who once was possessed with an individuality and self-belief. There is a clear difference between me as the person on two different occasion- one fighting inner demons, the other surrendering to the mental barriers.

Sound logic with brutal and bare truths is the Australian way. I will be adding conversation with friends, meditation and music in the to daily routine.

26th December - There were more discussion in GID class about sex and gender issues. Diversity of views were amazing that made me look and appreciate perspectives that I never knew existed.

27th December - Managers have to navigate the dynamics of governance contexts at various levels that impact organizational trajectories of the international environmental and trading regimes to shifts in national policy or market regulation to changes in organizational relationships with partners and networks. Thus was the brief introduction of GD course.

Yes, there is hidden apartheid and distinction between various courses floating at XIMB. Not all courses are treated equally by majority of faculty and administration. Some of this can be attributed to the lack of sincerity by RM students throughout many batches. There is no clear communication by faculty encourage people to plan their life and career more sensibly. A vocational college fails under current framework when its student operate under pressurized and uncertain job situation, as this don't provide them even elusive social or economic security necessary for survival. People also say “we all agree that we need to ensure rural managers get paid” even though, from the perspective of an individual welfare against loan, discussions rather than action are completely unimportant.

28th December - Our seniors had left few companies that are not well-suited to them in less than a year. That is harming our proposition in this dull market.

29th December - I am not able to focus for few minutes on a single thing. IRP field work is pending from a long time. I had made my life in the pursuit of short term goals.

80th Week@XIMB

80th Week@XIMB - 16th December to 22nd December 2012

16th December - STM book reading session started today.

Prof Deepak Malhotra - HBS - 2012 Speech to Graduating Harvard MBA Students

17th December - STM reading session continues.

18th December - “Complacency is a part of Indian psyche and you can’t do much about it. Every time an Indian tries to be ambitious he is pulled down and that’s one of the reasons why Indians don’t have the killer mentality,” Sunil Gavaskar once observed.

The fees are submitted. Yet I didn't find enough motivation to attend classes next trimester. Without a dream to chase, the soul stagnates. This has happened to many individuals here at this place. I once wanted to change the brawn environment of RM but failed miserably. This place has the capacity to pull down in an institutionalized way. Neither are we great in knowledge nor have sufficient human capital in the alumni database.

19th December -STM exams were over. I started studying financial inclusion: Financial Inclusion by Extension of Banking Services – Use of Business Correspondents (BCs), Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Centres and Financial Inclusion talk by Deputy Governor, RBI. Those who are more interested in examining their banking knowledge can give quizzes here at the IIBF website.

20th December - BM guys have nailed very good jobs today. That is much talk of the town today. Always aspire, never envy. I have chosen to take a career path with the TINA effect - there is no alternative.

21st December - FINO aspiration dies slowly. I qualified in the aptitude test but was disqualified in an HR interview. The only one reason that my batch-mates are getting jobs is that they had prepared much meticulously than me. They simply did not turn up and expect things to get done on past achievements. The twin crises of a shortage of jobs and a shortage of skills are hampering mine growth.

22nd December - There was a private meeting of few people with the student placement committee coordinator regarding rumours of future dates of the company visit to campus. With the batch size of 100, it will be a gargantuan achievement for placing all people in their favourite sectors. RM is not given importance by the administration and Placement Coordinator at XIMB. When the placement will falter, a lot of low paying NGO's will be pushed for recruitment. I have been hoping for the last 18 months that things will be all right as opposed to wanting to make them all right. How bad will it get before it gets better?

There is a rage within each student of the RM program with this careless approach. I am in the right mind will never ask anybody to join this program until a new campus is established. Nothing grows in the shadows of the big banyan tree. Continuing to the raging voices, there is nothing more risky and volatile of all things than a self-pitying majority. It's now is the question of identity and only partition is the solution. XIMB - BM has a big network of alumni who are spread all across the globe and have made their names in different fields. And for few exceptions, there is not much harmony at a 'professional' level between these two courses. Also, the majority of students have the habit of placing loyalty to their programs above professionalism for the sake of XIMB.

One must record history to prevent atrocities from happening again. I am finding pleasure to write this blog now. Placing a story of struggle in the placement scenario is a position that goes against the dominant narrative manufactured by B Schools. It is generally believed that anything that is not read, watched or consumed with immediate gratification can't survive for long. Even if I have to compromise on the delay in leaking out such heated debates about XIMB, I assume it's worth it and will never compromise on the authenticity of every written word.

79th Week@XIMB

79th Week@XIMB - 9th December to 15th December, 2012

9th December - There was an interesting collaboration that XIMB has had with the University of Minnesota this trimester. We had (almost) simultaneous courses running on "Social entrepreneurship" (XIMB) and UMN-Acara's "Design for Sustainable Development" (syllabus ). Nine students of SE paired with four teams of UMN and after initial facilitation from both sides the students have been working on joint problems with regular discussions over skype. The teams had their live presentations on Dec 7th which was conducted on an open platform with students here able to add and listen to their counterparts.

This low (no) cost experiment has happened with good learning on both sides. While positioning some of the advantages of XIMB, the noteworthy was the ability of RM students to be more awake when Americans are! The manner in which successive batches of RM students have participated and created a conducive environment for the nine students who opted to work with the UMN students is praiseworthy. The RMAX coordinator(s) and all the participants of last years contests have been good brand ambassadors and we need to thank them for that. XIMB students have not fought shy of constant engagement and hard work that this collaboration has entailed.

In an era of T20 B plan contests I feel happy to see XIMB students showing the ability to have the patience and persistence for Test match kind of engagements. I sincerely hope that the Indian cricket team learns a bit from them at Nagpur!


9th December - CBRM & SCM presentation.

10th December - Mckinsey Newsletter had a amazing article - From oxcart to Wal-Mart: Four keys to reaching emerging-market consumer.

11th December - People belonging to Hindi heartland must read Munshi Premchand to have basic understanding of the rural India. It may be idealistic version but must read

12th December - BASF live project final presentation was over today. Finding the need to innovate is difficult rather than already existing products. This was key learning. I heard first time about Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) in the presentation.

BoP is like a holy grail chased by every company these days in the name of sustainable business. Economy, Ecology, Society defines Sustainable Business. Since BASF is a company working in B2B, it is difficult to have B2C transition. Transitions that happen by default, clearly lack the foresight and hence the planning. Trade Fairs is a better way of B2B Marketing as you know your customer. Lower period of pyramid need different modes of selling. Hence we need to solve the both puzzles of product innovation and business model.

Distance from highway is a good criteria to select villages and people. But we need more information on income group and spending/ borrowing habits of the people.
Co-relation National Highway, Block and Village with Average Income will be interesting thing to note for BoP market. There is already need of reliable and Valid data in both Qualitative and Quantitative analysis.

13th December - Management@Grassroots programme is another academic initiative of XIMB which aims at providing community relevant course contents and pedagogy with active participation from the target audience of these courses. Kudos XIMB !!!

14th December - CBRM and SCM end term.

15th December - No exams, hence a day of rest.

78th Week@XIMB

78th Week@XIMB - 2nd December to 8th December, 2012

2nd December - I was back in Bhubaneswar from Raipur. I was rejected in Manipal Process after playing simulation game round.

People don't remember why they even join this course.

3rd December - Its Institute day i.e. Holiday. Fr. Paul Fernandes, S.J., Ph.D is appointed as the Director of XIMB by its Board of Governors with effect from December 4, 2012.

4th December - I wasted another precious day of my life.

5th December - In a closed and localized market, increased productivity only resulted in surplus goods and falling prices. That may happen to Amul and directly affect to the prices paid to producers. Indian government must start exporting milk and milk products to avoid such condition. And we are also self sufficient in milk production.

6th December - I qualified for the written test but rejected again in interview. I observed that beyond a solid knowledge of subject, it is temperament in stressful situation that matters most for winning candidate. Talent alone looks attractive but hard-work is effective in a long run.

7th December - I was alone and deep in gargantuan trouble of hopelessness. What happens when big ego meets official rejection news again and again ? To lose one job interview may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose two looks like carelessness. And as to losing three, well its a streak of nonperformance in my own eyes.

7th December - I am feeling numb and energy-less. Currently, I am in shambles with the state resembling to Indian cricket team. There is nowhere to hide for Indian team that has been exposed as a mediocre team. India has fallen from where they rose and the circle is complete. The time has come for me to move on in the life.

77th Week@XIMB

77th Week@XIMB - 25th November to 1st December, 2012

25th November - I was busy in preparing CV for off campus. I attended last three lectures of CRM.

26th November - IRP meeting is going on. I need to acknowledge their past errors in order to avoid them in the future. I will be more regular in updating my seniors.

I Couldn't attend a talk on PDS due to excessive drinking at night. This the lowest point of the college life. As they say, familiarity breeds contempt. There are amazing speakers who have worked and achieved fame across various sectors give talks every other day at XIMB. I could have attended if I wanted to. When it becomes a daily occurrence, one start to take it for granted. Don’t. If one want to be great, one has got to learn what’s made great people great. That was their sheer consistency to learn with limited opportunities.

27th November - KM quiz was over today. I loved and hate the feeling of being pushed to the wall. Without that one never appreciated easy times. I felt the high standard of academic pressure will be there at XIMB. But alas, the academic rigour has been diluted leading to the creation of mediocre but arrogant managers. Do MBA graduates actually possess the level of logical and reasoning skills employers are looking for ?

It may be with a little chance that its not about uninterested youngsters sleeping in classroom ? Are colleges pushing down a whole lot of uninteresting stuff down the throats of students ? What for? To receive the education that would fetch employment
but kill the spirit of entrepreneurship. B school rarely occupy us with life tools to analyze and reason about complicated social situations.

28th November - Harsha trust was celebrating its 10th anniversary reflecting on its decade long journey in the development sector (livelihoods) in Odisha and have for this event Mr.Deep Joshi as a chief guest. In the world of development sector that is fragmented with aesthetics, political and ideological divisions. Only great few persons like Deep Joshi are admired and respected by almost all, across all divisions.

I was reading on public health in India. Side-effects of poor public health was a nice article written by Professor Biswa Swarup Misra. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), on average a person needs 3 litres of water for drinking, 4 litres for cooking, 20 litres for bathing, 40 litres for sanitation, 25 litres to wash vessels and 23 litres for gardening. I am not sure that our notion of development is fulfilling any of these criteria. As Dr Nata Menabde, World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative to India has said : “A good society is one that takes care of its vulnerable, its aged, its poor and its sick.” Access to credit, insurance and savings are critical in coping with shocks. I think our design of welfare state has failed us.

29th November - I finished pending works and delegated assignments to others before signing off to Raipur for two days.

30th November - Holiday :)

1st December - Holiday :)

29th Week @XIMB

29th Week - 25th December to 31st December

25th December-  A day dedicated in the library for preparation of the upcoming exam.

There is an inspiring talk by Pradeep Kashayp, CEO & Founder, MART at a TEDx event at Hyderabad (on 'Creating an Endearing Organisation - The MART story'.



He been advocating entrepreneurship courses for the business school and I taught courses in XIM- Bhubaneswar in 1993 called ‘Start your own business’. XIMB was the second institution after IIMA which had this course. Now most of the B- schools have entrepreneurship courses.

MART had also developed 3M model that is an innovative approach to initiating micro enterprises based on the three tenets of micro finance, micro markets and micro planning.

I was also reading about legendary management thinker Peter Drucker. In a 1984 essay he persuasively argued that CEO pay had rocketed out of control and implored boards to hold CEO compensation to no more than 20 times what the rank and file made. What particularly enraged him was the tendency of corporate managers to reap massive earnings while firing thousands of their workers. "This is morally and socially unforgivable," wrote Drucker, "and we will pay a heavy price for it."

26th December- PROJM end trimester paper is over.

27th December- ITM end trimester paper is over.

News of the Day - Developed by XIMB, PRIASoft is a model accounting system that will be used for maintaining accounts at panchayat samiti and zilla parishad levels. One more feather in the cap of XIMB .....

28th December- MEARS end trimester paper is over. I read three impressive quotes while going through the study material provided by the faculty.

Creditors have better memories than debtors. - Benjamin Franklin.

How can you expect somebody who's warm to understand somebody who's cold ? - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

'Inflation is like sin: every government denounces it and every government practises it.' - Sir Frederick. Leith-Ross, Observer 1957.

29th December- SRM end trimester paper is over. This website helped me a lot in understanding SRM. The question paper was difficult but good in the material.

30th December- RPLS end trimester paper is over. I was busy playing "Age of Mythology" till the morning of next day.

31st December- It was a hibernation day for me. With upcoming of the new year, I am not so enthusiastic in joining the bandwagon of the celebration.

One couplet dedicated to billion of honest Indians on the eve of new year !

‘मैंने अदब से हाथ उठाया सलाम को, समझा उन्होंने इससे है खतरा निजाम को।

चोरी न करें, झूठ न बोलें तो क्या करें, चूल्हे पे क्या उसूल पकाएंगे शाम को।’

- ‘अदम’

This was the the last week of 2011. A year of struggle, love, joy and failures had just completed and the journey to new experiences is awaiting me.

28th Week @XIMB

28th Week - 18th December to 24th December

18th December- I again visted to the same village with more bonding and enthusiasm. While talking to villagers, I was overwhelmed by their efforts to overcome difficulty of credit, regular income, irrigation and education.

Despair is frightening at this situation when you love the people but placed in the system you despair of. Farmers were poor but they were trying to cope their life with dignity and hope. They have been cheated on the development projects before and still they were helping us with full enthusiasm. They are to be admired not pitied.

The field part of RLLE was over. This one month experience was a memorable one. I felt strongly that the strength of India lies in the resilience of poor not the money power of Indian middle class. Without the support of such agricultural workforce, the great Indian middle class bubble would have busted long back.

I finished remaining day work and started journey for one day documentation on the tourist spot of Gopalpur beach. We reached pretty late in the night. Recalling his previous experiences at Pradan, MM told us about nature, trekking, development and sustainable livelihood schemes.

19th December- I walked in the morning on the beach over to 2 km enjoying morning breeze at the seashore. We started to document and draw a lot in much more detailed manner for project report early in the morning. We left to Bhubaneswar from Berhampur city bus station. It was a 5 hours journey covering 170 KM.

20th December- Our group of four visited Dr P.S.Sivakumar at CTCRI for taking feedback on the rough draft of our reports. He talked openly about exaggerated figures and planning aspect of Indian government. He was equally critical of the government bureaucracy and blind following of  Robert Chambers and Johannes Hubertus Den Van Broek by our academics in the field of rural development. I didn't agree with all but lack of faith in original homemade solution is an old age problem for India.

I also visited Toshali National Crafts Mela 2011 exhibiting near our college at Janata Maidan, Bhubaneswar. Incredible Odisha, Incredible India !!!

21st December- I was congratulated by Chandan Raut for the selection as an intern in State Disaster Management Authority of SGGPA during summer 2012. It was 12:02 AM in the morning. SGGPA (School of good governance and policy analysis) is situated at Bhopal, M.P.

I am waiting for the return of other students to listen their stories of rural India. There are dark circles around mine eyes and dark shade on the face. This tour has affected health little bit.

22nd December- IRMA results has been declared and this year cut off is quite low. People are inquiring a lot about XIMB RM 2012-2014. There is a fair of chance of having only 60 seats in PGDM-RM 2012-2014 batch as we are not shifting to new campus. The quality of entrants will be much better this time around due to entrance through IRMA/CAT/XAT.

I am paying a lot of money for this course – so focusing less on grades, and more on learning but there is no preparation of the 2nd Trimester examination and have fair chance to grab lower grades.

23rd December- I was talking to many guys returning from the rural hinterland of India with one month of experience. Lot of youths of our generation including me neither had any idea earlier and nor do we care how other people live and struggle for their daily livelihood. It was an eyeopener for all of us. In some cases, the prevailing corruption had killed the enthusiasm of mine colleagues interested in the developing Bharat. Most of us has our heart in the development but inadequate money and educational loan comes as major constraint early in the career.

While I may grudgingly respect the enemy, I have nothing but contempt for traitors. The pseudo development and bureaucratic forces have shown their corrupt nature in implementation of various schemes. We generally admit that there was lot of work done for the poor in the last twenty years due to Panchayati Raj, RTI and liberalization of Indian economy. Even the disparities between rich and poor has increased, a lot of fund has been made available for various government projects. And yes there is lot of need of rural managers and rural developers in the country.

One of our Professor had actually lived like a wanderer and stayed into the wild. He is a bit difficult customer for students but he has gained respect from me today.

24th December- There is a positive air in the batch and a lot of confidence after this one month of rural stay. There is sudden springing of maturity and professionalism among the individuals. There is nothing more satisfying than the growth of the peers and friends.

I read and even bookmarked a fantastic piece of article - What to do during your MBA ?

27th Week @XIMB

27th Week - 11th December to 17th December

11th December - PRA done at Hinjerpenth at Nandapur block in Koraput district. Progress is an illusory term used in the development projects. That was the crux of the learning that I got working there.

12th December - PRA done at Renga Village in Simliguda block. This village was a prosperous one and caste division was visible to an outsider also. There was great difficulty for us in gathering people come from all hamlets together for FGD (Focussed Group Discussion). Me and MM were also misjudged initially as the agents of mining companies during survey. We have to clear our project mission and our background to them for tuning.

13th December - The remaining PRA tools were applied at Renga Village in Simliguda block. A lot of information was extracted in excess of our project to get an overview of the people mindset and village level conditions. Still, I was very careful in not giving any sort of political overtones in rapport building process.

There was a buzz in our mind to understand about Naxal problem. I concluded at the end of day that the Naxal problem had arose due to the continuous exploitation of the tribal people by the government, money lenders and middleman. It's a shame to realise that we people never stand up for the rights of those whose political views and social norms  we find disagreeable. And the apathy of many bystanders is also major stakeholder in the rise of Naxalism, Corruption and Fundamentalism in India.

I clearly understand that powerlessness can corrupt as insistently as does power. The desperation of poor tribal people lead them towards arm uprising. There is some sort of rationalizing of violence in us humans also. We student of rural India also overlook the structural violence that exist in the society in our analysis. The caste, religious and class conflicts are ground realities that shapes the path of economic development of any region. Now, I appreciate the work of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Binayak Sen, Deep Joshi and Medha Patekar much better in this frame of reference. Even when one can't help them physically yet healers like them empower people spiritually.

14th December - We reached Berhampur railway station in the morning and hired a cab for Chandragiri block at Gajapati district. We visited Taptapani on the way, that is famous for its hot springs. It is nestled at about 1,800 feet (550 m) above sea level. Our work at Gajapati district kicked off.  In 1963, about 600 Tibetan refugees arrived in the southwestern Orissa hill country of Gajapati, in a fertile valley known as Chandragiri. We stayed in the Tibetan Guest house there. We started working in the Chudangpur village of Chandragiri block with a brief meeting.

15th December - Our selected village have only Christian tribal people. All the households were converted to Christianity some forty years ago. With pumping of the foreign money for missionary activities and rise of Hindu fundamentalism, I personally fear that there is a chance of  riot situation in the future. I met two persons from Ministry of Home affairs in the Dhaba that night. Suddenly, I felt like living in an anarchy in my own country.

16th December - I roamed around Jeerang settlement and a small waterfall near it. We spotted two armed naxalites on our route to village in full day light. While working and roaming around there forced me to revise ours myopic narratives about nationhood, civil society and religion in the popular media and textbooks.

I left Gajapati in mid noon for Ganjam District. We passed through Aska, the place which has the 1st Sugar factory in Asia. The landscape was open and full of agricultural fields on both sides of the road. I reached Bhanjnagar block in the night. Biju Patnaik belongs to Village- Nuagam, near Bhanjanagar only. He once famously stated that 'Orissa is a rich state where poor people live'.

There was brief encounter with Police sub-inspector as we were non oriya outsider in a crime prone and naxal affected area. We tackled the problem quite diplomatically.

17th December - I was working in the field at Dhodapali of Jaganathprasad block. Visit to the field for the identification of Key Informant. The selected village was a poor and rainfed area.

26th Week @XIMB

26th Week - 4th December to 10th December

4th December - I attended the meeting for the assessment of our RLLE project at CTCRI Bhubaneswar. We were well prepared but the data was in hard copy. Overall, a good show at the end of the day. We are advised not to interfere in the political and caste problems of the village/region.

I read about Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act in Swaminomics article by economist SA Aiyar as it is related to the recent political heating of proposed Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the fast-growing retail sector.

5th December - The whole day passed in the training of the Community Participatory Rural Appraisal (CPRA) tool at CTCRI. The training was of 3 hours but the financial estimation for next 15 working days took a lot of the time.

6th December -  I didn't go to the training due to a cold and lack of sleep.

I am reading, again and again, an article 'Youthpal bill' by Rashmi Bansal who is making emphasis on us to live our dreams, not others. As per my view, one should venture into realizing their dreams only when one is strong enough to take the blows. Yet, the biggest training that any of us can get in life is a failure. I had seen hard days recently that I will never forget, but wish not to repeat them again. But each rejection has given me a reason to improve and look for their causes. The ability to never give up mixed with hard work and a positive attitude can even change fate.

7th December - It was a holiday given by the organization to us. I invested the holiday in sleeping. Currently, I am reading through a lot of talk about FDI in the retail sector. Here is an article in this detail. Economics Journal: Who’s Afraid of Wal-Mart?

There is an opening of the PGDM (RM) program through IRMA/CAT/XAT from this year onwards. CAT exam has been included this year to widen the talent pool for applicants. It's a good investment for the future of rural management programs. XIMB 2012-14 Admission has opened its PagalGuy page for the related queries long back on 26-08-2011.

I am happy with the academic program and learning environment of XIMB. It is a mix of theory and practice and involves a focus on real-time projects. Yet, I had hesitation to invite any IIT/NITian to join rural management unless his/her heart beats for rural India. To quote Mahatma Gandhi – ‘waste is a resource in the wrong place’. I am in the right place as per my capabilities.

8th December - Today, there is a Foundation Day Lecture by Shri S. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Co-Chairman, Infosys. I will be missing the show as I have to catch the train in the evening for my field trip.

My work would be based at Koraput, Gajapati and Ganjam districts that fall under Red Corridor. For novices of Indian political reality, the Red Corridor is a term used to describe an impoverished region in the east of India that experiences considerable Naxalite communist insurgency.

9th December - I reached Koraput in the morning accompanied by fellow students (MM, CK, KK) and Dr P.S.Sivakumar, Scientist at CTCRI(Central Tuber Crops Research Institute ). We visited Nandapur block for the identification of Key Informants and appropriate arrangements for the next two days.

10th December - We visited Hinjeripent village at Nandapur block early in the morning. A transect walk was done for PRA analysis. A lot of data was extracted with the help of our Oriya speaking cab driver and the local person working at OTELP (Orissa Tribal Empowerment and Livelihood Programme).

25th Week @XIMB

25th Week - 27th November to 3rd December

27th November - I changed the old costly hotel to a cheap one. Lot of Condoms
were previously used in the room when it was cleaned in front of me ! I learned that Cigarettes, Liquor and Tea have strong sales distribution network. It was an off day.

28th November - There is no photo taken in the field trip of poverty and hunger as I didn't want to glamourize the poverty. I am travelling between mountains and rice fields. Tobacco chewing is seen in both gender.

There is unavailability of mobile network of airtel and vodafone . Only BSNL and Reliance has better outreach here. Accessibility of mobile network is there ;to block level and ;on highways only. There are no signals at GP (Gram Panchayat) level. Naxal affected block is identified for risk mitigation in the data collection through unofficial sources.

29th November -Government officials are cooperative but the pace of work is quite slow here. The brand name of XIMB works as people are impressed by the name of 'Jhabier'. Going through government records gave me creepy feeling that even data and stats are white lies but a vital ones.

30th November -I was doing household listing today in some block. There is lack of irrigation facility in Koraput region. There are household that have literally had nothing to survive. People eat Raagi here when rice crop fail.
Some people even don't know the name of their forefathers. It shows somewhat lack of history in tribal area. The villages were deep inside and far from highway.

1st December - I covered Koraput block today. This is more prosperous than its neighboring blocks. I took a train for Bhubaneswar in the evening.

2nd December - I reached Bhubaneswar and took a day off from any sort of work or study. Hearing bitter, harsh and cool stories of initial phase of RLLE of my friends.

3rd December - Off-day for work. Given a lot of thought about MBA and learning curve !

Reading without reflection is like eating without digestion. The same indigestion is happening to me. When will I read all the study material? One never knows. The worst bit is one does not know where to seek improvement in daily routine. It feels as one is doing masters in backlog management. The point of all the academic activity is not to score marks but to inquire. I am unable to comprehend the complete picture of this 2 year MBA education today.