Reflections - Part III (Term 3 @ XL)

Dear Blog,
Click to read Term 1 and Term 2

The third term, the end of the first year, the term where you suddenly realised you are alone in the college without the seniors to guide you at every step, where realise you will soon stop being a student and start being a manager, was, for me, a mixture of both achievements and failures, promises kept and vows broken.

The travel did not, at all, augur well for a good third term at XL... it was hectic from the start and running train experience was indeed a new one – though I must say, exhilarating one too.

If I thought, the term was more eventful at the beginning compared to the last term, the near-end events were beyond the usual definition of “eventful”. XLRI sure was a happening place!!!

It started with a lot of firsts for me – the first dance class, the first CV point, the first bunk and proxy and a few more... The first dance lesson (I guess it was Salsa) was something I would remember for more reasons than one. Then started the chain of events that reminded me of the classic line by William Davies’,

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs...

Starting with the formation of Team Services – the vow taken to repay in kind all the help that we extracted out of the seniors – the vow taken not to rest till each one of them was placed – the vow taken to not complain of missed classes for something more important than any grade was at stake. And successful the vow was.

Simultaneous was the formation of the Maxi Admin Team for the Maxi Fair – by far the grandest event in XL in terms of student participation. Meetings through the night and door-to-door selling through the day. The whole junior batch prepared for keeping up a 30-yr old tradition of excellence. And successful the effort was.

No, it did not go by without a sad thought – I missed my first graduation ceremony– for the fiercest rivalry known to B-Schools in the India – the legendary XL-IIMC meet. I so wanted to be there but there were responsibilities – not just of the meet but also the vows taken. Forever shall I remain “unconvocated”.

The Valentine’s Day passed without a thought about it – it was the day of reckoning – it was Day ZERO. The scene wasn’t too good but did we say we were giving up!!! The fight would go on – right up to the last man standing. We were battling the worst nightmare of a B-Schooler – the worst crisis of the century – on and on it went – for a good long 74 days - and we would be victorious.

Unfortunately the battle was not the lone battle I was involved in – the academic battle was far from over!!! By no means was this an easy term. There was the “Research” and the “Operation” though hardly any “Production” – even Strategic reproduction was hampered due to the slower net speeds and the other battlefront engaged in a full scale war!!! As usual, before I knew what hit me, the End-Terms were overhead. Thanks to my group-mates, many of my projects were completed in time and that left me with the only worry of eliminating the ghosts of the exams – which I must say has never been my forte.

Learnings from the past term:

1. The grass is greener on the other side but what is the other side!!!
2. Naive ain’t useless – it is the only thing that works. Any other forecast will turn out to be too complicated for the uncomplicated market.
3. If you can’t explain it, match it to some unknown factor. If you can’t match it, redefine it – all economic theories are based on this simple funda.
4. What do managers do – Strategise – aka hold long closed door meetings – to decide crucial issues like whether the grass looks better dark green or light.
5. What worked in 1950 works now!!! You can’t work it out??? Well.... you dint study in class 6th and 7th, why sob now...
6. If you can’t do it, ask your virtual self to do it...
7. And once again, never the least of all, friends are your biggest assets. Once a while they may promise you a toy and forget, once a while they may make you feel small enough to drown in little drops of water but more often than not, they will be the balancing figure to match-up your balance-sheets. No inequation with friends can be solved as their shadow price is simply infinity. Their importance is a exponentially increasing curve with alpha>1... To all ye friends...

PP