Memories from the golden years of my life (9)

Yes Manish, I do remember the look on your face after the finance papers … and I will devote once complete blog to that look … but for the time being my heart is beating fast because I have no clue what is Weighted Average Cost of Capital … and I have no sense what happens in textile and refining … and I don’t seem to recognize even a single name on that board from the people I met … and my head is spinning like never before … and I write my mobile number against my name on the list so that others can contact me … and the alarm is now ringing … its time already for me to go to next day’s lectures…

Somehow we tolerated next day’s lectures … it was day 2 at IIML and I am already using tolerated … for one, I was still to get over previous day’s tiredness and two … some of the lectures like that on IT infrastructure and library management ... well I thought were delivered by absolutely incompetent personalities … and well could be definitely left for later. To top it all there was presentation in the evening …

In the break I contacted the others in my group (only a few of them) … I don’t remember all but one was Himanshu Jain (an absolutely unclean guy … quite literally so … but I struck a cord with him …somehow) .. and Manish Kumar Jain (this guy seemed to know what is Weighted Average Cost of Capital … man …wasn’t I relieved to know that). He explained the concept to us … it dint seem that difficult but at the same time I could not understated it fully … somehow we managed to crap together a few slides… it was decided that Manish will present since the rest of us hardly knew what was on the slide… A few students escaped from the hall CR203 … which clearly showed the level of enthusiasm shown by the batch. This was not appreciated by the faculty and a severe reprimanding was given by the Chairperson, PGP. But all was fine till the evening.

And then began that signature IIML presentation … the conversations went something like this:

S – Senior
J - Junior

S – You yellow shirt, you start the presentation
Pointing towards a guy hiding behind others
S – Man, who wears green to a presentation?
There is another dude who wore a green formal shirt to presentation
S – Why aren’t you dressed in formals? Is there a party going on
The guy was not wearing a tie.
J – (Mumbles something which is hardly audible)
S – Okay start now. We don’t have all the time in the world
3 or 4 seniors are shouting from the back
S – What ghastly slides have you made?
Disgust is written all over their face
S – How much time did you take?
Inevitably the first person was asked this question followed by the entire class of seniors laughing at the presenters
J – 2 hours
Man.. I just put in 45 mins .. am saying 2 hours .. and the look on their face .. well I feel like running away
S – That’s it! So you think you will put in 2 hours of effort and you will pass!

Followed by more laughs ... need I mention this?


Ill post on my specific experience next time ….

Memories from the golden years of my life (8)

I had initially thought of attending that guest lecture .. but dropped it just to prepare for an exam at 9:30 in the night. This was just the beginning. Beginning of sacrifices. Beginning of deciding what my priorities are. Beginning of what was going to be a long journey of trying to get a bite of everything … everything literally. I reached the examination hall at 9:20. I was made to sit in CR101 which was also my classroom for first year. There were some strict looking seniors with papers. Finally, after the room got full, they distributed the papers.

I was shocked to see the paper. It has been almost 3 years now and I don’t remember too much but I think the paper had broadly 3 sections – Finance, Marketing and Management GK. Of the three … just imagine I thought Management GK was the best! … I who had never been good at GK! The reason being I could hardly understand what the questions said in other two sections. Marketing was full of jargon though still we could understand English. It was Finance that sent a shiver down my spine. I knew nothing!

Dreading awful things, I turned my face around. Believe me it was such a relief to see blank faces all around me. Anyways, for one hour I broke my head on that paper. One of the guys who had completed all that he knew (and I am guessing it was as good a nil) wanted to leave the room in half an hour only. But the seniors did not allow that! They said we have to be there for complete three hours! So after I was done, tried going off to sleep on the chair only, though could not manage to catch any sleep at all. I was surprised to find some guys sleeping so well. I distinctly remember the senior having to shake Helly up, to wake her when they finally decided to let all of us go. As we came out of the hall, I was glad to find that like me .. the others also knew nothing. And I learnt my first lesson at HelL .. without anyone even mentioning it to me.. “What others are doing and how well are they doing it will be equally important to me if not more, than what I ought to be doing”

All was not well … As we came out, there was another notice on the same notice board. We had been divided into groups of five and had to make a presentation on the topic assigned to us, the very next evening after the induction lectures. The topic assigned to my group was something like this :

“Comparison of Weighted average Cost of Capital for refining and textile sectors”

Memories from the Golden Years of my life (7)

I got up next morning at around 7. No ragging had happened in the night. Maybe these MBA institutes had finally realized that ragging was such a futile exercise. Wasn’t I pleased to know that? We had our orientation at 8 AM. We were all supposed to reach the academic block with the particulars (which included a few photographs, letter of acceptance of advance fees and all the original mark sheets and certificates). I had a quick bath and got ready. I went to mess first to catch some breakfast. As usual, I had sufficient time on hand (I always had this habit of reaching any place before time) so had a full breakfast of cornflakes with milk, bread pakora and tea. There was omlette also, but as I believed that one should not have omlette and leave for any exam (this was my first day in the institute and hence equivalent to an exam), I skipped it.

I reached the academic block five minutes before eight and was surprised to find that I was not the only one who had arrived before time! Just to give a flavour about the academic block to those who haven’t been there, the block is made of red bricks and has five entrances, two of which are opened only during the time of placements. One of the three open entrances which is open faces the library (which is called as Gyanodaya) and the Computer Center (fondly called by everyone as CC) has a figure of Maa Saraswati sculpted on its top. The second entrance from the same side is closed. The other two entrances (which are the main ones) face the path leading to Samadhan (the administrative block) and Chintan (the faculty block). The fifth entrance leads to the green ground behind the block where temporary mess is set up during placements. As we enter the academic block from the main entrance (which is nearer to the library), on both sides are placed notice boards. The right side contained notice boards for our batch, which was PGP 21 (the 21st batch of post graduate programme in management) and the left side contained the notice boards for our seniors’ batch, PGP 20 (which was later replaced with PGP 22, once they left at the end of our first year). On the notice board, we saw, that the entire batch had been divided into 5 sections, for the purpose of induction. We were all supposed to gather in one of the big halls on the second floor, i.e. CR 203. I climbed up the stairs and reached the hall, to finds that already quite a few students had been occupying it. It was a large hall, with seating capacity of nearly 200 students. How 300 of us were to be accommodated there, nobody knew. The infrastructure has been generally good in IIMl.. The hall was equipped with a slide projector and a screen, was fully air conditioned and had good lighting for all purposes that it was supposed to be used. I found myself a seat, in the middle of the hall, to be seated for the rest of the day.

And, I introduced myself to the beautiful girl seated beside me, Helly Ajmera. She had a pleasant personality and seemed confident of what she spoke. We anyways did not have much to speak with anyone. So, the usual round of conversation was like … Where are you from? Which college? Any workex? Helly was from Bombay. It was later only, that I came to know that she had already completed first year of her MBA from another university in Bombay itself but had dropped the college to pursue MBA at IIML. I realized two things in this conversation. One, the IIM brand is really powerful. Powerful enough to make you drop one year. And secondly, that a part of my competition would be guys and gals who have already done first year of MBA once!

Soon, the hall was fully occupied. The first person to address us was Mr. M. Ravi Sunder (fondly known as MRS by everyone). He was the then Chairman of the PGP (Post Graduate Programmes). He welcomed us into the hallowed portals of IIML. He was generally not a great orator, but we were instantly able to connect to him because of his down to earth nature and simple speaking. At the very beginning, he warned us that the next two years are not going to be easy. We will need to put in our best efforts, although there is not reason to be scared of anything and we would manage well if we follow a daily routine of studies. (I guess the last comment was to dispel the apprehension which the batch had towards studies at IIML as last year, in our senior batch some 50-60 students had been asked to leave as they could not fulfill the minimum criteria for grades!)

This was followed by a couple of more lectures. Once that is clearly etched in memory is by our Dean, Academic Affairs - Mr. R. K. Srivastava, very commonly known as Rocky. The man is a complete riot in himself. Thankfully .... unlike others ... he was not preaching in his lecture. His welcome was really warm and it really showed on his face how happy he was. He showed us some past pictures of IIML .. some 15-20 years ago when we used to operate from the building now known as city office ... located in Aliganj, the early pictures of campus, the histroy of IIM Lucknow .... How they wanted to have an IIT at Lucknow .. and then the question was raised that there is already an IIT at Kanpur ... so the minister in concern (I wouldn't name him or her of course!) asked .. if not an IIT .. what else can we have at Lucknow? ... and the result was IIM Lucknow !!!

The lectures ended by the evening. There was a notice on the notice board which said that there was a lecture by some guest who had arrived (I don't remember specifically but I think he was some alumni). There was also another notice on the test that was supposed to be held tonight at 9:30 PM!!! Apparently it was a very very important test, as on that basis we would be divided into sections. We had anyways been anticipating this as IIML had sent a book on accounting for us to study with their letter of confirmation of receival of fees. This came as a real shock to all of us. Althought I had read the book ... completed it thoroughly ... yet I was not sure if I remembered everything. (I had done it long time back). Some of the guys were least bothered about it while others were simply aghast to see it as they had not even opened the book.

Memories from the golden years of my life (6)

Papa had left the campus ... and I had to move forward. As rightly put by Manish ... I had mixed thoughts and emotions at this time. I was anxious for the future, I was excited to discover a new world, I was sad because I was all alone ... away from home for the first time in my life and I was apprehensive, not so much for what lay in store ahead ... but for the ragging. I was actually very scared of ragging ... as I always have been (perhaps Shounak can elaborate more on this), althouth i had not heard of any bad kinda ragging (you know what I am referring to) in IIM Hostels. (There was this blog written by one of our seniors in IIML, who had written about day to day life at L. This had been sent to us on yahoo group before we had joined. I had gone through the entire blog and it had given me no sense on any serious ragging)

Anyways ... I just set up some remaining stuff in my room and ventured out. I was thirsty. There was a water cooler in our floor at the intersection of the two wings I had mentioned earlier. I filled in water in the bottle I had got from home (now you can imagine what a detailed preparation we had done :-) ) from the cooler and got back to room. Next I located the washing machine. It was just below the water cooler on the ground floor. So ground floor had the washing machine and first floor had the cooler (At that time I had not visited second floor. In fact it was after quite a few days stay that I came to knew that there was a washing machine at the second floor also).

Having nothing else to do ... I thought I might as well visit the only person I knew on campus at that time. So, I went to hostel 3, to visit Tarun Maheshwari. I was a bit surprised to see him studying!! We had just only arrived in campus. We had no clue what was there in course / syllabi ... and this guy was studying already! In fact ... at that time I did not know the book, but if I am now able to recall correctly, he was reading Prasanna Chandra! (Thats the basic book in financial management). As anyone can guess what the answers could be when I asked him what was he reading and why, he just said ... for timepass :-) ... At that moment only I realised its gonna be a lot more tougher that what I am prepared for. As we had nothing much to talk, I came back to my room. As I was just wondering, what to do next, papa called ... he had reached station safely and there was 4 hours of wait in front of him (all thanks to me). After that I called home and spoke with mummy and Dhiraj. After that I needed something (I cant figure out what it was now), so just went to Manish's room to borrow it. There I met Arkaj Agarwal. Hw was in room 512, just next to Manish. So, Manish had met both his neighbours, I was yet to meet one more. Arkaj was of good height, slightly dark complexion. He introduced himself from BHU. I actually for the first time, did not form any impression about him ... maybe because our interaction was dtoo brief ... Manish welcomed me .... and I sat there for about 5 min. But since Manish and Arkaj apparently knew each other ... they were talking quite freely. Stupid person that I am I started feeling uncomfortable, took the excuse of setting up my room and left. then I just fiddled around with my room till it was time for dinner.

At 7:45 sharp, (this was the time we used to have dinner at home), went to mess for dinner. In my first term at Lucknow, I did not had non veg in mess. (Okay ... now this seems to be absolutely absurd, but my thoughts were, my parents are spending so much on me ... and they had not even allowed me to take a loan (which is a different story in itself) ... so I must try and keep my expenses to a minimum. One had to pay extra for non veg in dinner .... ) The mess was quite empty at that time with very few people having dinner. As I knew none, had my dinner alone. I ate well ... (Not that the food was great ... but I was thinking of all the things that mummy had told me ... most of which were about food and she was sure to ask what all had I eaten ... when we talked next ...).

After having food ... I went to Computer Center (fondly called as CC) ... to chat with Dhiraj. A kind senior there (no, i don't remember ... any of them) told me how to login ... and how to do settings for yahoo messenger .... (yes, it was quite some time before gtalk stormed our lives). I chatted with Dhiraj and mummy about all things .. campus, people, room .. and especially about food :-) . Around 10, went back to my room .... prayed to God .. and tried sleeping (though I had a nagging feeling about ragging) ... No one knew what was going to happen next ...

In Remembrance ... Sham Ahuja

1st April, 2008 was a sad day in all our lives. My Jiju passed away. It came as a big shock for all of us. As soon as I was back from office, papa informed me of the news. I dont want to write about all the details ... as it would bring back all the pain that we have somehow managed to push at the back of our hearts. But at the same time ... I do pray to God to give his helping hand to Sonia Didi and her two sons.

Memories from the golden years of my life (5)

Well … I deliberately stopped my last blog at the point where I just got introduced to Manish Peter. And I am so glad that Manish has offered his point of view, his thoughts just at the right time. Continue to do so Manish, for the story can never be complete without you. I continue moving further here …


My first thought was a mixed one. I thought this guy looks like an uncle. I had heard that there are people in IIMs come after a lot of experience. Manish definitely seemed to me like someone who had at least 2 years of experience. Given my way of getting informal (call it becoming kid) I thought it might be difficult for me to become friends with this guy. Anyways, it was very kind of Manish to tell me that in case I required some assistance, he was just next door i.e. room 513.

Since I had just come back from the commercial plaza, I was doing nothing while papa was doing up the room. In one of our conversations later, on this very topic Manish told me he was surprised to see papa doing work while I was just standing there doing nothing. Never got chance to clarify this in college Manish, I was not as useless as I seemed. J

I closed the door and had a look around the room. Papa told me it was very good of Manish to come and say hi. My room seemed to be in a much better state than I had left it. Papa had re-cleaned the table rack, the bed and the cupboard. Also, the maid had opened the door at the back end, which led to another door (this time made of net), beyond which there was a small balcony with 2 ropes for hanging clothes. She had cleaned the balcony, although it seemed that it could do with some more cleaning. The view from the balcony was good, though not great. There were a number of trees just outside hostel, beyond which was the main circular road. One could see the bus stop from there and students waiting for the bus. (I came to know about bus stop later only when papa was leaving for station)

Anyways, it was time for me to make a second trip to commercial plaza and have my first encounter with Sonu Singh. There was a huge rush at his shop. Seemed like the Kendriya Bhandar really had run out of everything. I got the rest of the things (which included mirror, soap tray, soap, washing powder, cloth hanging clips etc.) from his shop. I also got an Airtel Connection. (Hutch did not have prepaid and I was averse to postpaid. I always thought they were costly and that making payments is a pain.) Came back to room, while papa was settling the newly bought in stuff and the stuff from my bags, I installed the chip in my phone and called up at home. I spoke with mummy and Dhiraj. Somehow I could not speak much.

It was soon time for me to make another trip to Sonu Singh. We wanted a cellotape to stick brown sheet on my table rack. I saw a couple of familiar faces from my Delhi IIML informal meet and the fresher’s meet but did not bother saying a hi or anything as I had not found anyone to whom I could get close.

I am deliberately not writing about these informal meet and formal fresher’s meet as the story is about the golden years of my life .. which started on 29th June, 2005, the day I left for IIML.

Finally, all settings were done … all thanks to papa. I am very sure till this day that had it not been for papa, I would have never been able to set up my room the way it was done. (Though the settings underwent a drastic change later). It was just too good papa …

I had a bath in the washroom that was on the right side of my room. Actually I had a look at both the washrooms on our floor and the one on our wing seemed to be much better. There was a shower and a place for hanging clothes and keeping all necessities in the washroom. I had learnt (thanks again to yahoo group) that hot water comes from taps in winters. We then went to the mess for lunch. I registered by paying an advance of Rs. 1000 which was to be adjusted against the first bill. The food was not bad. (Actually we learnt later, that whenever parents had to turn up, whether at the time of registration or convocation, the quality of food went up). I don’t remember vividly but I think they had made moong dal and aloo ki sabzi apart from roti, rice and salad which was a constant phenomenon. Papa was satisfied to see food. He said that at least I wouldn’t go hungry as there was a jar of pickle at each table. (Given my eating habits, he was sure that I would end up eating roti and pickle most of the times)

We then went for a small walk around campus. Though this was the first time that I was actually seeing campus, it never seemed so, all thanks to the innumerable times I visited IIML site before coming and the innumerable times I saw the CD sent by Synapse (More on this later …) We saw the academic block, the library and the computer center. Somehow I did not feel like going for a further round and came back in my room. Before that we had found that there goes a bus from campus to the city as papa had to catch a train that evening itself. The bus stop was right outside my hostel. It was not the only one .. but the nearest.

It was evening soon. The bus was to leave at 5:45 and then 7:30. Although papa’s train was at 10 and he could easily reach station in time if he left by 7:30 bus, I had forced him to leave by 5:45 bus, in case the 7:30 bus never came, for then we would be in soup. Before that we went to the mess for some snacks. There was a huge bowl of butter and another one of jam. Tea was kept in a large steel container with a tap. Another such container contained Rasna Sharbat. They had also made snacks which included if I remember correctly some pakoras and a piece of cake. We ate our food in silence and then papa picked up his small bag and we went to bus stop to wait for bus. The conversation that followed was one that I would remember through out my life. Papa wished me good luck. He told me that I should be brave. This was the first time that I was going away from home. And that I should pray to God whenever I am trouble. He said that this is going to be the time when I would build my career, my future and he advised my to work hard for it. I was listening to all this but my mind was not there. There was fear …. Of being left alone. Of having no one to support me. There was fear of leaving my family behind. There was fear of something happening to them while I was here. …

The bus came. I wished papa goodbye. He wished me luck again. I told him to give me a call when he had reached station and when he would reach home the next morning. And then the bus left. I held back my tears with great effort. Went back to my room and cried for the first time on my first day at IIML. I would remember this moment for feeling the loneliest in my life ….

Memories from the golden years of my life (4)

What i saw was not very encouraging. The room was full of dust. It was a small room. There was a bed with a most dirty looking matteress on it. A table cum book rack was stacked in one of the corner. A chair made of cane was also lying there, covered up completely in dust. From the entrance I could see a door on the other end of the room and two windows. I was wondering if they would open or not, such was their condition. Just on the right side of the entering door, there was cupboard made of brick and wooden door. And furthur right to the cupboard was a small window which was inaccessible from all angles. God knows why was it designed in such a strange way !!

The room was painted yellow. The cupboard was also painted yellow. I have always liked yellow colour for the rooms. It gives a kind of glow to the room and the light appears brighter. Anyways, I pulled the luggage inside the room. And both myself and papa entered the room. Once again my interactions on yahoo group came to my rescue. I knew there were maids to take care of hostels. I went out to find out if any maids could be seen. Luckily I saw a maid on the other wing of the first floor. I asked her "Didi, ye mera room bhi clean kar dengi aap?". She replied, in what was her characteristic style "Ji Bhaiyaji". I told her my room number was 514. She came after 5 minutes. First she cleaned the room with a jhadu and later mopped it with a dirty looking rag. She also cleaned the table and the rack cum desk. I tipped her with Rs. 20 and entered the room once again with papa. There was loads to do, literally. I had to arrange all my luggage in room. I had to get so many things of daily use. And we had to eat something too! We were hungry.

I must confess that papa is really an expert at setting up things. Quickly papa set at cleaning the room once again while I set off to get items of common use from the commercial plaza. The commericial plaza was IIML's CP, our shopping centre. There were 2 shops at Commercial Plaza. One was a Kendriya Bhandar and another Sonu Singh, a sardar's shop who was ek number ka chor, again something I had learnt courtesy yahoo group. Apart from these two shops there was a canteen a.k.a. Faujji ka Dhaba and a Nescafe Coffee Shop. Anyways, I wanted to buy things from Kendriya Bhandar due to obvious reasons. There were many other people also who were buying their daily usage articles. However, as happens most of the time Kendriya Bhandar did not have most of the stuff. Anyways I bought whatever they had viz. a bucket, a mug, washing powder, brown sheets etc. and came back. I thought it would be better to keep this stuff in room rather than carry it to the Sonu Singh's shop.

As soon as I had kept the same stuff in my room, someone knocked. As I opened the door, I saw the person who made my life in hell, a heaven. He was slightly taller than me, well built, fair complexion and with few hair on his head. He introduced himself. Little did we know at that time that this person would be the most beautiful and essential part of the golden years of my life. He was Manish Peter.