Quarter 3 - Week of Exams

The week went by in such a fast blur, so fast that I am beginning to believe that time travel is possible. Sleeping everyday at 12 and waking up at 6 should make you think that time seems to stretch for much longer, well, basically because you were awake for that much longer! And yet... I wonder why...

I hope to God we never have to write three exams in a day once again... it's just way too painful! Our first exam was Marketing. Maybe the teachers knew that this was going to be a helluva lot of pressure and pain, so they kindly (or unkindly) decided not to give one more exam that day, and gave us THREE on the next. In hind sight, I think that was the best thing to do. Otherwise, we'd ALL have depressing marks for sure! The prof seems to have caught on to our eeni-meeni-myni-moe strategy, and gave us a case study to analyse. I think I saw a few people drop off to sleep in the middle of the case, let's just say it wasn't entertaining. It was something about a virtual network service provider and some big insurance company and how we were going to market to them. Wasn't fun, but wasn't too bad either.

The next day had QuantMeth2, Law and ManAcc. QuantMeth2 went back to conceptual questions, and everyone was struggling to string two and two together. I kept getting five, so I'd keep rechecking my answers. I am beginning to think anything is possible in QuantMeth2. It was a somewhat easy paper, except for three or four tough questions. Out of Seven.

Law was as expected, we just wrote some fundas scribbled with common sense and served it in. I hadnt had time to study for that, I for some reason figured that whatever I understood in class would be enough. That says how much I understood in class!

I studied for ManAcc though. Totally liked the paper! It seems to have been something I could write with certainty all day! I am telling you, this was definitely something we could just pick the book up and read. It's surprising how we polished off stuff in three hours that we took almost 8 hours to learn... wierd. I am telling you, we're all geniuses when it comes to ManAcc.

Now for two weeks of well deserved rest.... aaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

Quarter 3 - Week 10

Last classes for the quarter - check.

Tension - check.

Strong black kaapi - check. check.

I have to study for the exams next week AND get back to my projects. See, our Marketing prof sprang a surprise on us by saying that we should submit our project by Wednesday. That kind of derails my entire plan of what to study and when. Now, my brain newly filled with management-fundas like prioritization tells me that writing this "popular blog" is not really going to get me grades, and that I am better served off doing the marketing project. Another part tells me that I should go on, and then compile all this in a book and make thousands of paise with it! While both sides of my brain argue about what route to take, I am going to go watch a movie at the newly opened BIG Cinemas!

Wait. The second part won, so I am now writing this... Sigh. No movies for me while I'm in this course, damn it! It's a good thing that what I have to share now has left a lasting impression on me.

Law - Like I mentioned last week, this week was going to be a special one since we were having a guest lecturer. Our prof very kindly granted us the first hour off so we could sleep for an extra hour. What he doesnt know is if we get an extra hour, we're going to TRY to study, and then fall asleep during that time. Or maybe he does know that, and if at the end of it all, if we are anyway going to sleep... is there a point to the conundrum? Who cares.

Anyway, so the second hour we had our guest lecturer come in and talk. It's intriguing to note that even when our first hour is cancelled, some of us still manage to come late to the class. Must be in our genes. Anyway, so this person speaks to us about open source software, totally opens our eyes to the fact that making your stuff open source doesnt mean you should give it off for free (it is encouraged, but it's your software, do what you want!), it's just that its for the betterment of communities and that people get to change the software that they buy. Charge for service if you want, why charge for the software? or why keep it so closed and protected from the world? So we understood the fundas of GPL, LGPL, BTL etc. Fun topics. He too has this funny way of making humorous comments while keeping a deadpan expression. Maybe both our prof and he went to the same college, I dont know.

After our guest finishes his session, he calmly locks up his laptop and walks out of class. Our entire class, that is typically at their noisiest and roguish best during the breaks, is quiet. Why? Because this person is none other than Dr. Kalyan C. K. He was a top ranker at NLSIU, a prestigious law college in Bangalore, and also at Franklin Pearce Law Center. He is a distinguished and eminent scholar, having written international publications on IP, and even co-authored a book.

He is also 90% visually impaired.

You would never guess it by the way he took the class. He had a laptop that he used effortlessly, he was on the right slides, and talking the right content. It didnt in any way look like he was having any trouble. There might have been an odd instance or two, when someone asked a question and he would look in another direction, even our profs do that all the time. The guys who came in late to class didn't get why he was looking in the wrong direction even when they were pointing the right person to him, and when they got to know, they were all dumbstruck! His presentation was impeccable, his confidence and sense of humour shining through, it was impossible to believe that he might be having any difficulties at all. But after packing his laptop without any help from anyone, he took out his stick and used it to navigate all the obstacles in his way, and walked out of class without any help from anyone. It was at that moment as he was walking out, that I felt so ashamed and humbled. So many of us have no such impediments, and we complain about how we struggle through life. I find it hard to continue writing this, as I still remember the way he walked out of class, independently. He came to talk to us about freedom of software, the Free Software Foundation. The talk didn't rub off on me as much as the way he was living his life. Not letting circumstances pull you down, but working against it to live independently. This the first time that truth has hit me this hard. For I've just witnessed true freedom.

Marketing - Our prof continues to talk to us about Marketing Communication. He did sprinkle in a lot more of worldly wisdom this time. He does have a deep well of knowledge, no matter how often he throws in his bucket, he always seems to get out something to nourish us with. Anecdotes mixed with marketing topics for some reason keeps us attentive. He too mentions the point that what we do should be backed by strong research, "Soch ke kaam karo" he might say. I'm hearing this from all the teachers, I think they're trying to tell us something. Maybe they're trying to tell us that what we do should be backed by strong research. Duh! What am I, four? But maybe no matter how often they tell us this, we aren't doing it. So we might deserve the repetition after all. Sigh. He also talked to us about the properties of good ads - it should raise a question in your mind, answer it and then make you remember it. Smart. The next day we studied the importance of tradition. A lot more worldly knowledge followed. I like to think that he was trying to convey to us experiences that meant so much to him, that he just had to share it. We even saw a couple of videos where he was talking, and oh my God, no matter how much I had prepared for me to see him in a younger version, that image on screen really knocked my socks and shoes off! He had hair on his head for God's sakes! It's just so different! But his diction, expressions and gestures were the same then as it was now. Maintain that, and add an air of content and peace, that's our prof for you. This might be his last year at IIMB, I selfishly hope not. He's just too good a prof for other batches to miss out on.

In addition to the customary thunderclap, we also stood up as a token of gratitude and more importantly as a mark of respect, as he walked out. It's the first time we've ever done that for any professor.

Managerial Accounting - The last class is supposed to always be the easiest. I paid attention and survived. It definitely was easier than the other classes. Problem solving, actual concentration on the topic, all in all a good day. We studied Standard Costing today and solved a problem and a HBR case. This subject is beginning to grow on me. Rest assured, I definitely dont want more classes though.

Now, a very enriching and fulfilling week in summary. Feels good to be done with the classes. Calm time's over, the storm's about to start. Time to hit the projects.

Quarter 3 - Week 9

The penultimate week of classes for this quarter, it's really nice to see how fast the classes passed by! I get a familiar cold feeling, when I remember the exam is in two weeks. How nice it feels to know that we will have three exams on a Saturday, the first time when we're going to be this swamped. Now's when I'm definitely feeling the heat that our group should start on our Marketing and ManAcc projects..! Quit stalling, start doing! Good thing all our groups are still in the confused mode of which direction to turn in! :D

Law - We had a lot more to discuss on IPRs, and we began talking about the difference between Patenting, Trade Secrets, Non Disclosure Agreements, Copyrights etc. Apparently, we are even going to have someone come over next week and give us a talk on Open Source... that sounds like it's going to be very interesting! It's almost funny to note how many people had questions regarding patents and other company policy related doubts. At the end, while talking about arbitration, the prof cheekily gave us an example of how we would ask for difficult questions for the exam, while the prof wanted to give easy questions, so we would use the PGSEM chairperson as an arbiter, where he'd suggest that we have 40 marks in multiple choice and 20 in short answer type questions. Or something like that. And with that, we ended our tryst with him, marking the occasion with the now-standard thunderclap of appreciation. If we see him again next week, I wonder if we'll thunderclap again?

Marketing - This week we studied how a person goes about making a sale, and about how low cost amplification can help with bringing about great impact. We were also given a basic case on negotiations, and when we came back the next day, we split into our groups of four to fight two_mano-i-two_mano, and we had the occasions to needle, threaten, plead and ultimately come to a victorious middle ground between the two teams. Naah, we didnt do that... we chose to continue haggling since we aren't awesome negotiators yet. All in good time. The second day's class was more to do with how we should go about giving the other party something, taking something ourselves, and staying out of a "we-attack, you-defend" spiral. A couple of anecdotes that the prof told us about, wherein one person could act like he owned the marketplace, but on further investigation, we found that the traders felt he was one of the few people who really cared for them. The more I listen in this prof's class, the more I get to hear that being a nice person, taking care of those around you, not trying to cheat someone lie at the heart of being a good marketeer. But then again, what is it not at the heart of?

ManAcc - The class seemed a little more sombre than usual during our prof's classes. We've gone beyond Activity Based Costing now. We're now in Performance Evaluations, and the class just seems waiting to be done with this. But there is a more marked attention span that our class now has during her sessions, we might have just made a breakthrough with the sleep_for_10_minutes-pay_attention_for_20_minutes routine. I'm proud of us.

One more week of this madness, and then it'll be time to go really mad. God help us all.

Quarter 3 - Week 8

It's already week 8, time does fly by. Who'd think that just seven months ago, we walked the hallowed halls of IIMB for the first time, hoping to outdo all the people who have walked these halls before. The solemn promises of coming out on top, knocking the socks off all the other students and teachers, the hopes of mixing with the brightest in our fields, the ones who made it through all those filtering. It's been a blur... from the energy-filled days of Quarter 1, to the bleary-eyed days of Quarter 2, to the... well, more on this later.

Law - We studied more of Company Law, Competition Law and the second session involved discussions on IPRs. Not much to really talk about, there are no particularly interesting anecdotes from this.

Marketing - This week we studied the ITC eChoupal initiative. We had a guest lecture by ITC - he spoke to us about the initiative, how it began, and how it changed one aspect of the farmer's hard life and made him a little more comfortable. I've never felt as proud of being an aspiring manager, especially from India, after I heard this person speak. Finally, you felt there was a point to being a manager, maybe they can do some good after all, techies aren't the only golden saplings of the future. To summarize things, let's just say that farmers initially had to endure what seems like a very unfair ordeal at the hands of the middlemen, and there was no way they could learn from current technologies. In fact, they were so scared and uninspired to try out anything new that they erred on the side of caution. They would rather apply age-old methods of agriculture, than try out the new, more efficient methods. There was no one to guide them, they were islands in a sea of crops, dirt and wild plants surrounded only by like-minded helpless farmers like themselves and loyal, dumb animals that helped them till their lands. Completely at the mercy of nature, they crave and struggle for the barest of necessities, and yet hold their head up high by very nature of their culture.

The case very neutrally mentions that ITC kickstarted this initiative after they realized that they were not being very profitable here, so one mark less for being money-minded. But the good that they did for the entire community of farmers appears to far outweigh their reason for doing this. They brought computers to the community, empowered the farmers by making one of their own a point of contact between the farmers and ITC. Self help is the best help and all that. Finally some good inspiring story of how technology has uplifted and made life all the more better for some of the people who struggle everyday and sometimes skip food even, just so the world can eat with content.

The next day, we studied about how retail channels go about their business, and how power is moving from the producer to the retailer due to technology. Now retailers have systems which tell them which goods are moving fast, and THEY hold power over the heads of the producers telling them what goods they want to stock, and what not. An example could be how Big Bazaar has stopped holding P&G's Kelloggs, and are now instead placing their own brand of corn flakes on their shelves.

ManAcc - More study of the ABCs in ManAcc. No, these aren't the basics, we're talking about Activity Based Costing. Apparently, people have long been putting together the costs of indirect material, indirect labour, and other small/universal factory expenses, and distributing this equally amongst all product costs as "factory overhead". Somebody woke up one day, and says, "Wait, that seems wrong... I am making simple pens for really cheap, which dont use much of the machinery around me, and some sooper-awesome-pens-that-write-in-anti-gravity that use almost all this machinery and even stuff from outside the factory. How is it that my records show that the awesome-pens are making more profit for me than the regular pens?" So then he sat down, and went through the ordeal of actually checking how much of the indirect effort REALLY went into each product. Imagine his "surprise" when he finds out that the awesome-pens are loss-making, while the normal pens are most profitable. Perfect fairytale! Anyway, the whole origin of Activity Based Costing comes from the fact that factories that previously used to manufacture only one item, have started to "differentiate" their offerings. And this has caused diversity in effort, and therefore people wanted to check how much each offering really costs.

It's good to know that I now know SOMETHING in ManAcc, that probably causes me to rant the below. It makes me cringe when I realize what I used to behave like before the test. Today, I happened to see our class in a new light. Since now I am interested and trying to pay attention in class, it really hurts when you see some people in class joking around and not even trying to pay attention, distracting other people, and acting like they are the only ones in class. I mean, I get the fact that the person doesnt follow what's happening in class, but there's some decorum expected here. I mean, come on, you're not in nursery here. You're studying in a premier institute for a post-graduation course. There's some class expected from you. If you cant follow what's going on, atleast shut up, sit still or even sleep for God's sakes. Just don't distract those around you.

Be responsible. For you and those around you. That's the basic thing we're all trying to learn here. Do it justice.