Reflections – Part II (Term 2 @ XL)

 Dear Blog,

Just as I had started settling into the rhythm of 8-hrs sleep per day, a rude awakening call was given to me by the damn reminder in my mobile: September 21. Time to go back to the 3-hrs sleep days... Time for second term @ XL...

The first week, as in the first term was pretty normal. Some teachers were yet to return from their other assignments and hence I was “free” with other pursuits. That joy wouldn’t last for long though... And even in those few days, I had to prepare for the SIPs. Squeezed in between was the great XL Diwali...

Two GBMs... One for the introduction of non-conventional placement opportunities (which I must say gave rise to more concerns about fewer opportunities and the tough times ahead than the “opportunities”) and the other for introduction of the senior teams for the process (to reassure and mend the dent left by the previous GBM)... I’ve already described the process in great depth in other posts [1, 2, 3, 4] and thus will not venture details here... By the way, there was also the famed GBM which I shall not mention here...

Then came Ensemble 2008. 

A place for the best minds from all-over India to meet. Sad, but for the few OTS events, hardly any XLer would have “Ensembled”... The Sudoku challenge, the fin-quiz, the face-painting competition etc. were the saving grace. Else, it was just the various associations and the few lucky teams selected to the final rounds (names withheld due to obvious reasons). The reason behind the best in the field not being called upon and the job left to few “selected” members escapes me... What is more... genuine help is frowned upon and looked at with scepticism (I surely hope, in few isolated cases)!!! As the great Bard put it, All’s well that ends well...

Then the realisation suddenly dawned, not the SIP or Ensemble was what I was here for... The existence of project deadlines and tests hit me hard. That I was able to squeeze in time for everything was in itself a great wonder... My prior experience with PPTs and excel sheets did prove to be handy... Before I realised, the end-terms had dawned, just as I realised, they were over.

My learnings from this term:

• There is logic behind great organisations being so great... 3M and Google surely did not know they were to change the entire content of case studies and presentations. 
• Facts are artefacts... Rare... General knowledge is not very general... Not very well known to people. Any assumptions thereof will be the point of discussion and example for many discussions and possibly even Group "Discussions"!!!
• History is indeed written by the victors... and so is a successful marketing strategy! The loser can only wonder, “what if...”
• If you do not know a thing, keep quiet. If you know it, more so...
• Market never runs efficiently... Thus, it becomes the role of finance managers to take the blame for all the bad judgements of all the people. Who should be blamed for all the economic evil that the world is going thru... the brilliant economists and MBAs or the common junta who just can’t calculate the price of a financial instrument... (well, they are not expected to... but shhhhh... who else can we blame)
• Under Sec 1(aa) of the College Student Act, any dissent against boring subjects is henceforth declared unlawful. The right to strike has, with immediate effect, been withdrawn. Any violation of the above nature may be dealt with in a manner deemed strict by the offender. The award of punishment will be discretionary in nature.
• Democracy gives u only one right... The right to remain silent... Everything else can and will be used against the right...
• Once again reiterating... Friends are the biggest assets... unfortunately, no accounting standard allows them to be  written off in the balance sheet as they bring no liability with them... Pacioli was wrong here...

Bringing the curtains down on an eventful term...

PP