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.