Life @ MDI

This is the introductory paragraph. I will try to keep it short. I read somewhere that simplicity wins reader’s attraction, so I will try to keep it simple too as I would like it to be liked by people of your like. Simple!!!

I just had my 2nd term exams and there is a 10 day vacation for which I have come home. Before I left, a few people asked me what I am going to do in the vacation. And this is what I am doing - thinking over and reflecting upon the last 6 months @ MDI Gurgaon.

This is necessary especially when you are surrounded by objective people with different philosophies than yours. It gives you an opportunity to justify the premises on which you base your actions. Ayn Rand has said “Check your premises; Contradictions don’t exist”. So let me check my premises as contradictions do exist not just around me but within me as well. May rational prevail!

Apart from subjecting my premises to the objectivity of others around me, I will drop a line here and there (actually everywhere) on my experiences in the past 6 months.

The First Term

The First Seven Days

For the first seven days, Induction process went on. The purpose of the induction was to make us ready for the grueling PGPM program of MDI. Six months have passed and I am still wondering which grueling program were they talking about? Forcing one to attend all the lousy sessions doesn’t prepare him for anything. It is just for the fun of the senior batch particularly the student council. I am against it and I will do everything to make it a flop next year. A bunch of slightly toned up versions of Ankit Sisodia in the junior batch can do the trick.

That brings me to the next topic – The Ankit Sisodia. This is one of the most vivid memories of the first week. I didn’t talk a lot to him which is usual of me but we used to exchange hellos at the sutta joint outside the college gate. This guy had guts. He could easily have spoilt the entire drama of the student council had he been a little less casual and a little more earthy. Had it not been his air of superiority and dare for drugs, he could easily have been the hero of the drama scripted, directed, and produced by the student council. I still remember the conversation I had with him during the lousy ad making event.

Well this event was for bringing out the creativity in us. Let me test your general knowledge at this stage. Who was Newton? Newton was a MDI student who when asked to be creative by the student council discovered the law of gravity. Newton was great. I am not. I can’t think out of the box whenever I am asked to. So I decided to be a silent non-performing member of the team. But soon I realized I can’t be a silent spectator and listen to all the goosey ideas that my team was coming up with. So I decided to leave the team itself. I told one of my group mates that I am leaving and he can say this to the student council. Then I met Ankit Sisodia who (I think) was doped. He was trying to switch on a cooler. I went up to him as he was the only familiar and idle one out there. To start the conversation, I asked him why he is starting the cooler. I know it was a stupid question but never in my dreams had I thought that I would get such a punishment for asking it. He said, “Why? Who are you? Are you going to punish me for that? Are you going to complain to the student council?” I asked him, “Why is he overreacting?” He asked me to leave saying that he is not in a position to figure out who I am. Being fully aware of my interpersonal skills, I thought it better to leave. I went out and left towards the golf course expecting that no one would find be there and I would be spared from answering the questions related to my non-participation in the event. But I was wrong. I met OJ. He asked me, “Why am I standing there?” I said, I don’t want to participate and I am not creative. I said that in an aggrieved mood. So I guess, he didn’t ask any further questions and left. But he didn’t give me attendance and I had to pay a fine but I was ready for that the moment I left my team.

I will now talk about two of my most liked event of the Induction week. The first one was the treasure hunt event. I am a very instinctive person. My brain and heart are never at conflict. They never contradict each other. When they do, I check my premises as I am doing now. Somehow the moment I interacted with my team for the treasure hunt event, I felt good and I felt like contributing and giving my best shot. Maybe it was due to cheerful HR girl in my team:). Almost everyone in the team was lively and contributing. Further no one was trying to be a leader. There was a sense of mutual admiration and believe in each other’s abilities. We gave our best shot and had it not been due to a bunch of senior HR guys sitting in the arcus, we would have won that event. Nevertheless I enjoyed it a lot especially proposing to a girl of the senior batch as a part of a task and the musical chair. The next one is the accounting exercise which we did in auditorium. The good thing in this event was that the team was small and there was no conflict as to the role everyone wanted to take (or was there?). I was made the CFO. What else could I have asked for? We came second and I really enjoyed those 2-3 hours of that dull lousy week. There was a team building event as well. I don’t want to dedicate a full paragraph to it as I didn’t really enjoy it a lot except for few tasks like free fall. The problem again was the presence of too many leaders and a lot of chaos whenever a decision had to be made.

This section would be incomplete if yoga sessions are not talked about. I don’t regret getting up early in the morning and attending it. But again it’s a matter of choice and I wouldn’t force it on to the junior batch if the decision is left over to me. There is not much of a contradiction in what I did and what I would like to have done in the first week. Let’s move on to the next topic.

Cricket @ IDPL
What is cricket? Is it just a game? Maybe for you but not for those who follow it with passion. Fortunately enough, most of the India follows it with passion and the mutual admiration for the game binds the country together. Most of my acquaintances @ MDI are either from playing cricket or by sharing sutta. Cricket @ IDPL made me known as Manoj (Manoj Prabhakar) in IDPL. I used to be an attacking player in my school days and have broken many a glasses of my colony but apparently that touch is gone. Trust me or not but sutta does affect your reaction time. Atleast it has affected mine. I used to be a sweet timer of the ball. Where is that touch now? Though the touch is gone, the ability to stay at the crease is still intact and that earned me the name Manoj Prabhakar. Just like any other player in the crack of doom, I too hope to regain the Midas touch that used to bring the hell on earth for the bowlers.

The Marketing Project
The memory of this project is going to remain alive for a long time. Our group was probably the best and definitely the most diverse. It had a perfect blend of intense and comic personalities. It had NPAs also:). But all in all it was a nice entertaining group. Another reason for remembering this project is the flash animation I made. Not that the flash animation was out of the world, but the process of making it was very satisfying. Coding it was tough but justifying the reason for making it to the people around was tougher. Even more annoying was the comment of one of the team members who said, “Why are we doing it?” when it was almost done. I already had spent not less than 6-7 hours on it. Further I was not seeking any help. All I was asking was a bit of cooperation. But I think it was just a passing remarks and I would like to mention that I would not have been able to finish it without the support of my fabulous team.

Unnati Interview
I had my own reasons for applying to Unnati. I had a penchant for stock market but I knew I will never follow it up unless I have reasons for doing so. Though liking in itself is a good enough reason, but it asks for discipline which I lacked. Further here I could play with someone else’s money:). Considering all this I applied in Unnati. Auto & Telecommunication were the two sectors I chose. Written exam was a piece of cake but Interview was real tough. Though I did well in the interview (The proof of which I got a few days ago) but that wasn’t good enough for selection. But it gave me a lot of confidence and I knew after the interview that if I work slightly harder relative to the fin studs, I can be on the same page as them before I leave MDI.

The Mid Term
The start wasn’t particularly delighting as I messed up big time in the Microeconomics paper. The next was the Marketing paper which was any way not my cup of tea. The Accounting paper went satisfactory. Had it been slightly tougher, it would have been better for me in terms of RG. The Statistics paper in which I scored 28 on 30 was the only performance to cherish and it will remain fresh in my memory for a long time.

Academic Club Interviews
The only clubs I applied in were Monetrix (The finance club) and Sports club. The other club I would have liked to apply was ThinC but somehow I missed the deadline. The Monetrix story must be told. I had a pretty decent interview and was expecting to get selected. The next day, one of the interviewers came up to me and said that I am in. Out of joy, I shared this with most people I knew. The biggest surprise came when my name was not in the list of selected candidates. Instead it was in the waiting list. It was a real shocker of an event. I don’t have a problem with not getting selected but the person who told me should have been a little more mature in conveying news which was subject to change. I don’t have any regrets though. The club wouldn’t really have added much value to me except giving me something to write in my resume. But the cost in the form of attending useless meetings would have been much higher. It was a decision made in haste and I am happy that I didn’t get selected. All well that ends well!

The Sports Tournament
I was looking forward to representing my section in Chess, Cricket, and TT. Getting into Chess team wasn’t tough as I had hyped my chess playing abilities during one of the WAC classes. I am a good chess player but lapse of concentration has always been my problem. In the past, I use to work a lot on my games and moves and that used to help me in games. Nothing of that sort happened here. Moreover my concentration and hence my chess playing abilities has only deteriorated over the years. To add to that the qualifying game wasn’t tough enough to give me a real taste of the challenges ahead. The first match I played ended in a draw. I was a bishop down from the very beginning and I had to try real hard to stay in that match. But I played well in the middle and managed to draw the match by three fold repetitions. I was completely exhausted by the time the match got over but immediately after I had to play another game against a really strong opponent who had lost his previous game and was desperately seeking a win. I committed a lot of blunders and lost easily and that was the end of the chess tournament for me.

I could have played TT but since I was playing so many other games, I volunteered not to play. I also knew that there are some weaknesses in my game and it wouldn’t be suitable to represent the team without first working on them for which there was no time.

The first cricket match that we played was a knock out match against PGPIM. We had to win that game to go to the next round. My role in the team was that of an opener. I had practiced a bit the previous night but I was not 100% confident and was feeling really nervous when I went out to bat. After playing cricket in IDPL for sometime, I knew that my reaction time has deteriorated and I am not sighting the ball that well. I was trying hard to connect the bat with the ball but it was not happening. I decided to stay there till the end which I successfully did and made 27 valuable runs which eventually turned out to be crucial for team’s victory. The next match I opted to sit out which I think was a mistake. I should have probably played down the order and tried to hit the ball to get back my lost confidence. The second match we lost and we had to win the third match so as to reach the finals. There is not much I would like to remember about the third match except for the catches I took and the brilliant inning played by the other opener.

Another game which I played was Volleyball. It was not on my list initially. When I went for the selection, all I wanted to see was the quality of my section’s team. I must admit, it was pathetic and much worse than my expectation. I had no option but to play so as to atleast give a fight to other teams. We played two and lost two:). I wish we had few decent players. But that was not going to be and it too ended in disappointment like all other sports I participated in. Maybe next time I will do better and help my team win the tournament.

The End Term
Well! I am tired of writing now. So let me finish it in as few lines as possible. The end term went really well and I was among the top five in almost every paper. I think Marketing was the only exception. I couldn’t have done better. It helped me pull my CGPA against many others who has done better than me in Mid-Term.

The Second term and more will come soon...