Mid way through the 1st Trim

The first reality check for us came in the form of mid terms. Once in every 3 months, we, budding managers are super cooked by the end term exams. So going by that logic, you can say mid terms are the process to make us half boiled.


What a better way to start the torture than with Accounts and Economics. Trust me, none of the two subjects makes any logical sense at all, at least to engineers. The preparation part was a learning experience for me. In simple terms it involved getting hold of the guru of any subject, and sitting in front of him/her and trying to understand what he/she will cover by just flipping through the pages. That will comprise 70% of the syllabus, out of which you will understand 50% and finally retain 30%. No wonder the paid managers could not prevent or even foresee the global turndown.


Accounts examination wasn’t much productive but for a term coined by the Hulk----Anand, thanks to Garvita. Meet Garvita, the cute girl from Madhya Pradesh, with exceptionally talented singing prowess and equally deadly dancing skills. Generally MP-ites are known for their “shudh Hindi”, but Garvita’s Hindi is full of “apan-tu.” She’s the only working SR of Stats. Garvita was sitting grim-faced on the second day of the exam. Anand asked “What happened?” “I don’t know. My Accounts went horrible. I did such things that…………..” “….that no Accountant would have dared to do, right?”----Anand continued “but that’s okay. This is known as creative accounting. No many people can do that.” So all you aspiring/budding managers, who are destined to face the Accountancy blues-------don’t feel bad if your balance sheet doesn’t tally.


O.B., O.M. and Stats went rather unceremoniously. While the last two are somewhat tangible, O.B. is complete rubbish. With n number of theories, it tries to help future H.R. managers to deal with probable work place problems. But what it effectively becomes is problem itself. I hope Venkat, Surma and Shomna don’t read this, or else I am dead. We have no idea why they want to take H.R. as specialization, but the good thing is we know whom to forward our CVs to, five years hence. Meet Venky, the pseudo Mumbai-ite who doesn’t know Marathi. He has the uncanny habit of keeping his hand in his pocket while speaking. Simple it may sound, but it can cost you dear, ask him. His voice is the loudest in the class, and that no doubt gives him the edge to his already superb style of speech. Surma, the Bengali girl who’s not at all comfortable with her mother tongue is an awesome orator. She’s the HAM ( half a minute ) champion of her college. She was with me in my GD panel. Take it from me, nobody could afford to open one’s mouth when she spoke. She spoke in short bursts of 30 seconds ( now I know why ), and made no nonsense of that time. She’s also a prospective year topper. Watch out this space to find out if she really does that. Shomna, the lass from Kuwait, is a very good friend of mine. Always smiling, she’s an anti-vegeterian. She will either have non-veg for dinner or will skip it altogether, of course giving exam time the discount, when she’s too busy to go out for her regular course dinner. She’s shares a Tom-n-Jerry relation with Jassi. Meet Jaspreet---- “barey paji” as we call him. With a deadly physic and a deadlier sense of humour, he sets the class on his own tune whenever he takes the centre stage. He also has another nickname “pseudo Sardar”. He’s from Bangalore, and from the same company like Shomna, which is in the news for all the wrong reasons. Shomna says everyone in the Bangalore branch knew Jassi. So you can well make out what a dynamite he’s, and not pocket size,mind you !!


I.T. examination was very happening. Firstly there was the confusion----we all thought I.T. mid term exam will have 5 % weightage, and gave the exam JLT (not JIT mind you). Later on we learnt like any other exam, it has 25-30 % weightage. But by then, the damage had already been done. But we remember this examination for a completely different reason. Midway through the examination, came the announcement that the last exam, Marketing would be postponed indefinitely, due to Maharashtra Government order owing to Swine Flu scare


The slump which the airlines industry was facing was recovered within a matter of hours, for sure.By the next morning, 90 % of the hostel was empty. My roomie, the Nanha Pahelwan ( who now has a new name Pinku, don’t ask me why ) advised me to watch the twin movies “28 Days Later” and “28 Weeks Later” to get a real feel of living alone. Trust me listing to him was the most stupid decision on my part. The mess which is over crowded during lunch and dinner times in regular course was like a deserted place. But the good side of it was people like me, who preferred to stay back, enjoyed a private suite for a week or so.By the time the much coveted break gave way to the Marketing exam and regular classes, the exam feel was gone. But I loved the Marketing exam. It was like a story writing competition, reminding me of my old days. The best part in Marketing is there’s no correct or wrong approach. Every approach is perfect as long as you justify it, and once you are in an MBA course justification is not an issue, specially with the 3 Gs with you.


I won’t go into the details of the varied reactions once the answer scripts were shown. Just the highlights---- I got more than 60 % in Accounts, but flunked badly in O.M. My roomie Sayan got 57 out of 60 in Stats. Madhumita got an astonishing 40 out of 50 in Marketing, with 25 out of 30 in the Case Study alone. Last but not the least----Gautam got the highest in Accounts. Now why is that special? Because he’s a techie with no commerce background. He’s a state level cricket player and an excellent guitarist as well. Well as I said our class has no dearth of talent.