Mumbai 9.0 - When R1 met R2 !

Mumbai 9.0 was destined to be different from the others in the fact that we would have both R1 and R2 junta partying together. Also since winter is almost over quite a few R1 public woke up from their hibernation. So an overwhelming number of junta were gonna be there this time.

Deciding the venue was tricky and opinions varied on choice of venue. But in R2 we had the batch's 'poster-boy' Hardik who wooed the public opinion in favour of Sportz Bar at Phoenix Mills. 

So it was Sportz Bar on 21st Feb at 6.30pm. About 28 people had confirmed.

Quite a few of us were there well before time so ensure we got seats before the weekend crowd got in. In no time quite a sizeable crowd had poured in. A few were running late (by about 40 minutes ... eggxact !!) while the others preferred to walk slow. 

Our Restless fish had always wished for a representative gender ratio in the meets and today he got exactly that. But the space constraint meant we sat on two tables and mixing didnt happen. So we started playing musical chairs to mix and match. We had a lot of introductions but not all of them were as smooth as desired. 

Fresh from the onslaught of Dev D a couple of sundays back, Parag barged in rather late but pretty much ready to model his evening to be Parag D. (Yes ! He got sloshed, emotional and puky). In fact he puked so much that the traffic police has now put up a new sign on the narrow road in front of Sportz Bar.

We had a special appearance by the relentless traveller Rachita Paes (not Pace) who finally decided to tour Mumbai after being done with other parts of India. By the way I had last seen her in Rajasthan next to a camel.

The meet was pretty much chaotic in the sense that there was action everywhere. I missed quite a bit of it because I too busy concentrating on the Pop Corn on my table. But it can be summed up by the following questions which made up for 75% of the conversations mainly:

1. "I am sorry, what was your name?"

2. "Oh sorry, I think I am asking you this for the third time."

3. "Are you from R1 or R2?"   

 because of the fairly large number of new people you had met. 

I met quite a few stand-out junta. But the 3 people who need special mention:

• There was this "random" guy whose name I am withelding upon request (read bribe). He is such a people-oriented chap that he has "U" in his name and not the selfish "I". That too inspite of staying in Powa"I" in Mumba"I" and working for Delo"I"tte. 
• Then we had an ex-Army commando who if I reveal on the blog will make me the 11th casualty on his 'laid to rest' list assuming nobody else gets lucky. By the way he informed that he was primarily a 'farmer' into 'weeds' and by depositing the money in a famed finance institution in Kerala he got lot of interest (13%) which helped him double his savings. He's gonna be the Captain 'G' on campus. And he got an enormous kick because the drink was served to him by 'Ialive' Nishant. 
  
• We had Sid who is not just any-Gandhi but Ne-gandhi. He is a CA at PWC and is rumoured to have leaked the Oscar winner's list by signing his name below. He was seen doing two things passionately - defending PWC & challenging that Ghatkopar was 10 mins away from Powai.

Later in the night we were joined by the 'barb-wired' couple Aviral & Neha, so our Parag D let loose a barrel of emosonal atyachar on them. By then the evening had been set-up nicely for a passionate outburst by all people drunk and senseless. It involved talks of life, emotions and politics. For the mintues of meeting please contact our poster boy 'Hardik'.

By the time things were done and dusted it was over 1am. A idea floated that we go some place to eat after all the booze but figured that it was better to split for the night since most of us were out of cash while Hardik was out of chances (he was already pulled up by his mom on thursday for turning up hic ... hic at 4am in the morning).

All in all a Saturday well spent. Guess the next one is gonna be even more rocking since the 75% contributor (ref questions 1 to 3 above) will be out of the equation. Also we have our consultant Akansha using her skills to tell us how we can cut costs involved in the meet. Till then this is Smack D signing off !

Smack D's memory test of the day: How many names and faces can you recollect correctly?

Next meet: A special quiz on who's who ! 

"To Make New Friends!"

These are exciting times!

Exciting, especially, for those of us who have decided to quit our well paying, comfortable jobs to pursue an MBA now.

There are many reasons to do an MBA. I have many, but one of the more important reasons I decided I wanted to do an MBA is because I wanted to make new friends. New friends from backgrounds other that my own and get to know them, their work, their passions, aspirations and ambitions. I kid you not - This is what I said at the ISB interview when they asked me why I wanted to to go to ISB: "To Make New Friends!"

It was a few years ago that I noticed that my friends circle was very homogeneous. At the school I went to, all the kids came from modest middle class homes, aspiring to be engineers and doctors. Then I joined an engineering college to study computer science, and everyone was just as smart as me, interested in the exact same things as me and wanted to work in the exact same fields as me. After college, at work, everyone seemed to have the same plan for life - Work in software for a few years, then do a startup and become rich. I started to venture out of my circle a little bit and tried to make some new friends, but most people I met were again like me - Engineers interested in either photography, wildlife or both.

In the meantime, I heard of ISB and its huge focus on diversity. They claimed that they admitted students from all walks of life, and that the students could learn so much from each other. I thought how great it'd be to meet all these folks - People who've worked on offshore oil rigs and investment bankers, scientists and army men, lawyers and RJs. I got all excited! It would be so much fun to work and learn with such a diverse set of people and get to know them better. I was game!

A few months later, I was ecstatic when I learned ISB had admitted me to the class of 2010. This was going to be so much fun! Right after the R2 results were announced, the admits from Bangalore got together for dinner to get to know each other before the course actually started. As I was driving to the dinner, I was skeptical of who I'd meet. This is Bangalore after all - The land full of software engineers interested in either photography, wildlife or both.

But I was not disappointed. I met a race track owner, a corporate lawyer, a scientist who models hair shampoo and another guy that makes chewing gums. In fact, I met this person at the dinner who said he did something, and I couldn't understand what that meant, so I asked him "What does that mean?". He explained it in detail, and I still couldn't understand! This has never happened to me before. At that point, I decided I was definitely going to go to ISB. I was going to meet many many more people doing many many interesting things.

I'm all excited and pumped up for April 11th! Imagine the kind of folks I'll met at ISB and get to know them and their unique perspective on life. What fun!

- Aditya Kulkarni

The Second Wave

Guess this is the first of (hopefully) many posts by R2 admits on the blog of the class of 2010. Before we all get to migrate and unleash our arbitness on the official weblog, that is.

There are many reasons why people have chosen to apply in one of the two rounds, and the single most important factor for me to submit my application on December 1st 2008 instead of September 15th 2008 was because I was too lazy.

Yes. Too lazy. And forgetful.

I know for sure that a few of you would identify with this particular condition, which is what, in my case, prompted me to take up the GMAT late in October and then get essays, evaluations and my entire application in place by the last week of November.

The memories of sitting up late at night trying to trim / re-word / sometimes overhaul essays to incorporate maximum fundas in them shall now be fondly relegated to that section of my mind I've labelled as 'nostalgia'.

So will the memories of an interview where I walked into the main atrium of MY new campus, clad in a suit for the first ever time in my life with an official-looking folder in one hand and a banana in the other, which is why I wasn't able to shake hands with the ad com volunteer who handed me the sheet in which to write the 100 word essay in.

Fondly recollected is also the memory of standing at the second floor of the Forum Mall with a good pal (an R1 admit), after my GMAT, being drunk on a meagre quantity of alcohol in a way that only expensive restaurants would prompt you to, hoping we'd soon be in Hyderabad. The city had to be made awesomer, and it needed us to be there.

Random fond memories and anecdotes notwithstanding, the R2 admits have been watching, waiting, and for the most part hoping that they'd get to be part of the online action soon, and those days seem to have finally arrived.

While the time available between the admission offer being made to an R2 candidate, and the day of joining ISB is quite short, the R1 admits (who've vaguely achieved college senior status) have been incredibly helpful in ensuring that our teething troubles with regard to accommodation, loans, laptops and other miscellaneous stuff are being adequately addressed.

Here's to R2 admits making the most of the available corporate internet bandwidth, and serving the notice period in a highly 'productive' manner.

L'chaim!

ISB R1 Awards

Now that the R2 admits have started streaming in its time to announce the Smack D R1 awards:

1. The over-abused term: "My two cents" (its beginning to get on the nerves of most people)

2. Most words typed per mail: Vivek - the hands down winner (btw hands would have to be down in order to type)

3. Maxim zeal for uploaded files: Tom (just keeps 'em coming)

4. Artistically challenged: Pankaj Poddar (for his controversial and universally accepted logo)

5. Successful Marketing campaign: Chalo Chennai (with the huge number of underwhelming responses) 

6. FODU (Father of Doc Updates) - Nikhil (aka Narnikhil)

7. Versatility:  Restless Charmer / Restless Fish  (and btw now restless is a official four letter word for him)

8. Shakesphere's muse: The bee in the bonnet (who says "My name is a name is a name" and has different 'official' spellings for the same name. Shakesphere once asked "whats in a name?". Her reply "Whats in the spelling of the name?")

9. Discount Ninja: Jiggy aka Jignesh Shah (who can bargain a discount on anything including something thats free !!)

10. Diet coke Keshto: Ashwin (for messing up directions to the restaurant after two shots of Diet coke)

11. The truck stopping show-stopper: Rishi Dogra (Late night adventurist on the Lonavala highway)

12. The Chaddi buddy: Pallavi aka PJ (for taking the Pink chaddi campaign to the Ram Sene)

13. Byomkesh Bakshi: Vivek Pandey (for finding the three reasons behind crimes)

14. Relentless traveller: Rachita (done with India !)

15. Ms. Youtube: Sreejita (who is googling away the oglers !)

16. Most expensive mails: MRC (for promised sum of Rs. 1 lakh for the best B-plan which could go upto 1 crore)

There were more but I just ran out of awards !