Calcutta 3 or the Fact vs Fiction Challenge

What happens in Calcutta stays in Calcutta? Maybe not! Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you some highlights from Calcutta 3.0. Full marks for identifying fact from fiction.


1) The city was struck by bandhs. Inspite of that we ventured out to meet fellow ISBians. Such is our commitment to our classmates!

2) We Calcuttans are obviously deprived of sunlight. Why else would an open air poolside lounge be a possible venue at 11 am on a hot sultry day?

3) Speaking of restaurants and venues- we were promptly ushered into a corner. Then the restaurant forgot all about us and our hunger pangs for a good hour and a half.

4) Which suited us fine because we had a lot to talk about. Sample this: Vivek " Sometimes when I fill up a form, I have to stop and count whether I'm Jhunjhunwala or Jhunjhunjhunwala" It was Pallavi to the rescue with a great mathematical alternative.

5) Aditi did not rag Sreejita for almost forgetting her name for a bit. Specially since they'd met up for an hour and a half a day ago. Sreejita did not make matters worse by calling Kaushal, Gaurav throughmost of the meet. Any number of compliments about Aditi's funky eye wear did not placate her. Sreejita was made to repeat the names of everyone at the table.

6) By this point we'd ordered, our orders had been confused. Pallavi discovered Chocolate Milk Shakes and Chocolate Doughnuts are actually the same in the city. What's in the last name of a dish after all? We'd exchanged a lot of stories and named no names. But the merriment was shortlived. At this point, the waiters firmly offered to bring us our cheque and politely but firmly told us we should be on our way. It was a Saturday morning after all, surely potential managers should have a lot to do than just chatter away endlessly?

7) Not to be daunted, we just switched places. And voila! A change of location prompted a confession from Lisa. She's heartbroken that her birthday falls on the 29th of February and she won't be dunked in the swimming pool. Lisa loves swimming!

8) Meanwhile Innu's still mystified by whether Hyderabad or Calcutta is a better city for an ISB interview. We added to her confusion by introducing our Delhi interview experiences into the mix.

9) In the midst of all this, Charu got our undivided attention by telling us she can cook. There a traffic stoppers and there are conversation stoppers. This was one. After all, it's a handy fact, when we get tired of the wonders of Goel Dining Hall.

10) It's official. Calcutta doesn't need Facebook. Everyone's a networker by default. Within minutes of meeting we discovered, Kaushal, Innu and Vivek went to the same college, Lisa, Pallavi and Aditi went to school together. Sreejita, Aditi, Lisa, Innu and Kaushal had common friends. Kaushal and Vivek were related... ok. enough already! Rashmi was the only one spared all the networking. Charu too, but she just moved here. Give us a while and our network shall follow.

11) Shouvik zoomed in on his bike for a guest appearance.

12) Presenting Calcutta- poster city for women in business! The number of women at the meet far outnumbered the men.

13 ) Great fun was had by all! ( come on, there had to be one easy one, right? )

Mumbai 11.0

Mumbai 11.0 started amidst much fanfare at The Tasting room, Lower Parel which was by the way not "Somewhere in the Phoenix Mills" ! So much for the poll !! We had quite a few new faces, most of which belonged to the female cult, about whom you would discover as we go on !

I went straight from Office so reached there much earlier than others (6.45pm to be exact). But one person still managed to beat me - Priya. She reached so early that it was time for her to go before anybody else came. So much for being the early bird ! Anyways she looked different from the first (and only) time I had seen her on Mumbai 1.0. She had grown her hair slightly. She opined that it was time to get a haircut, I begged to differ though. 

As usual Ashwin, the Diet Coke Keshto, joined me.  Flaunting his biceps he came in a red Swiss Tee. Soon others started pouring in. Sujata probably wanted to repent for winning the Best friend award so she came along with Shishir to boost his spirits ! Nitin Vishwas wanted to make a dramatic entry ! And boy didnt he? He walked right into the mini-fountain. Love blinds you but friendship? Sindhu, who was right behind, made a smart entry after Nitin Vishwas's famous "Walk on the water" ! The Karaoke (singer) lover Akshay Pai wasnt too late either !

We also had Pranjal Desai (female please) who came up with a award winning pickup line:

Pranjal: So are you married?

Me: *Blank* <> Not yet atleast

Pranjal: But I am ! 

Shruti (aka Shoozie coz her shoes are choozie) made a threatening entry. 

Shoozie: Today you are going back with fewer teeth ! How dare you call me Navjot Sidhu?

Me: How the hell did you come to know that? I had lost a few teeth from Shishir's dentures but I had told noone about it !

Salome was probably the most tortured one of all ! As if remembering so many names on her first meet was easy, almost everybody she met was introducing themself as Shishir. On top of it she didnt even like the food. She spent the entire evening ordering take-out from another restaurant.

We also had a foreign import in our midst - Samyukta who had dark circles - all thanks to mis-information she received about ISB meets happening in some of the other cities. She spent two sleepless nights memorizing GMAT scores for Mumbai admits since she expected us to also play the memory game. For last minute revision she had written down the GMAT scores on a tissue paper. Her exams in childhood days had given her enough training on how to make chits !

The Mumbai meets seem to have really caught the attention of people in other cities. This time we had people visiting from Bangalore - Aishwarya Ravishankar ! And she literally swore that she saw PGK lurking around the corner ! 

She approached Nishank for help who vowed to fight Mr. PGK until the last drop of wine in Jay's glass ! In the meanwhile Janani was polishing her Taekwando skills while Rachita was training her on the different styles of self-defence she learnt on her incredible India tour ! Together they were gonna be the Karate kittens in ISB !

In the meanwhile PK had managed to walk into the meet. He seemed to be very interested in photography. The two females sitting on the next table will testify to this. He spent nearly 15 minutes with them. Shishir was as usual in his elements. He also got into the photography and seemed to take PK's pics from behind. When asked why he said "PK looks better from behind !" Parag D and Shouvik too had managed to join us. Shouvik had a relatively tough cutting lanes on the express highway.

In the meanwhile Parag D managed to do a Nitin Vishwas. He too walked straight into water. Our better half of the Hedge fund buddies Amit had come along with his wife. On their way Amit almost got robbed. Only his sound I-banking instincts managed to get him out of this one.

Shweta Divecha wouldnt give Shishir the number of the photographer who had taken her perfect picture because she like Shah Jahan had cut off the hands of that photographer. Akansha was there too but she would call Sharmaji every 5 minutes to check what he was doing. In case he was going to have an iota of fun in her absence, she would immediately head home and take 'corrective' action. Yakeen nahin? Sharmaji se poocho !

Poor restaurant ! They had a torrid time with us being there with all that noise. Infact to cancel our noise they tried to play loud music too ! But come hell or high water things were not gonna change. 

From there we decided to go to Ghetto. Quite a few of us split from there while most carried over the action to Ghetto at midnight. We were joined by Delli-6 awardee and the oldest waiting ISBian-to-be Rishika (admit since R2 Class of 2009) ! The ultraviolet light inside the ghetto was just about right for some more action !

This was when I decided to play the little Vodka trick. I filled a glass of chilled water and took it around as if it was real Vodka. I offered Pranjal a sip from my drink which she accepted without much hesistation. But she found it strong ! After all water is heavier than Vodka ! Ditto with Rachita who had one for the road ! Am I evil or what ? All the ladies except Rishika bid adieu. We were then joined by Colonel Muthoo (Sandeep) and Mr. 10 minutes (Sid).

Soon we were joined by PK's two angels (from the Tasting Room) and hence PK got busy again. But Shishir had started feeling jealous now. So he went to them and took PK's case in front of them. So much for the Bachi-kuchi ijjat !

Towards the end Shishir was feeling 500 bucks too rich. So he decided to bet with PK. The bet: would Rishika know my name? The result: Rishika could only tell that my name started with V. So much for Hugo weaving's character ! A famous saying - Shishir and his money are soon parted!

From there at about 1.30 am we decided to head to Red Lights (a pub). It was closed. Then we went to Polyester. It was open but the cover charges were too exorbitant. So we decided to go to Bade Miyan ! We had all the Bade Miyan specials - the bhunas and the rolls. 

Shishir to waiter: "Arre yaar ! Mujhe Bhaida roti khana hai. Lekin mujhe Bachhe paida karna hai toh roti mein Tel jyada mat dalna. Doctor ne bola hai !" (Wonder which fertility clinic he went to!)

Over the next hour we had awesome conversation to go with the awesome food. Shishir was frequently interupted by the waiter and asked not to be too loud as people in nearby buildings were sleeping. By 3.30am we were done and tired. 

Its been a long but Galatically awesome night. Hopefully these are clear signs of things to come in the next one year !

P.s: The history of Smack D's blogs -

ISB MMX Awards

Here is Smack D's Dean list ! Thanks to quite a few people for nominating some cool awards !

1. Most over abused term - "My two cents" (say that on campus to get yourself killed)

2. Most words typed per email - Vivek J (Hands down winner ! btw his hands would have to be down if he has to type)

3. Best performance in a satire / artistically challenged - Pankaj Poddar (Any surprises?)

4. Best performance in a leadership role / Most expensive emails - MRC (1 lakh to 1 crore)

5. Best Historian - Vijeth (Mumbai blogs)

6. Helen of Troy award - Yevheniya K, for being the name that launched a thousand emails. (Need I explain)

7. Ms. Question Bank - Tanya Rawal (One more question please)

8. Mr. 10 minutes - Siddharth Negandhi (Powai to Ghatkopar)

9. Nature's boy - Hardik Jhaveri (whom nature calls on his blackberry)

10. Designated Driver's conundrum - Shouvik Sarkar (for potraying a dog as his designated driver to a suspecting cop @ Mumbai 5.0)

11. Smoked Crusader - Tom (Kabhi defeat Kabhi Gum)

12. Versatility in Restlessness - Shishir (Youngnrestless, Restless Fish/Charmer/Netowrker)

13. Byomkesh Bakshi Award - Vivek Pandey (for finding the three reason behind crimes - land, money & women)

14. Karaoke (Singer) lover - Akshay Pai (The singer is always better than the song)

15. Diet Coke Keshto - Ashwin Uppal (for messing all up after two shots of Diet Coke)

16. Discount Ninja - Jay Shah (aka Jignesh who can get a discount on anything icluding something thats free)

17. Dev D award - Parag D (for his awesome performance on Mumbai 9.0)

18. Mr. & Mrs. Smith award - Neha-Aviral Chaturvedi (oh Yeah ! The barb wire, thanks to Diet Coke Keshto, was only temporary)

19. Best friend award - Sujata D (for bringing her friend-cum-Shishir basher along for Mumbai 9.0)

20. Relentless Traveller - Rachita (Done with India !)

21. Head of ISB secret service - Mamta Saini (The Lady called M)

22. The Google paradox award - Sreejita Deb (Google gaddar - Ah yes ! she uses FB more than orkut)

23. MRC's great ISB idea award - Aditya Kulkarni (For hedging his placement)

24. Shakespeare's muse - Ritu / Reetu (two spellings for the same name ! Shakespeare asks whats in a name, She says whats in the spelling of the name)

25. Successful marketing campaign - Chalo Chennai (for the huge number of underwhelming responses)

26. FODU Award - Father of Doc updates Nikhil (aka Narnikhil who spread chaos at Pagalguy)

27. The Truck stopping Show stopper - Rishi (late night adventurist on the Lonavala highway !)

28. Chaddi Buddy / Six pack award - Pallavi (for taking the pink chaddis to Ram Sene and for developing the six pack abs on her King Kong costume)

29. Mr. Addiction - Maninder Gulati (for his addiction - to tobacco @ ITC & female models @ Fiama Di wills)

30. Mr Negotiator - Krishna Kumar aka KK (Can I re-negotiate this award too?)

31. Colonel Weed - Sandeep (Army commando-cum-Weed farmer)

32. Childhood buddy - Shweta Divecha (for being Shishir's childhood buddy)

33. Ms. Muscles - Malavika (Damn ! I couldnt manage to dodge the Gym instructor again today !)

34. Mr. Underwater Cybershot - Arjun Guha (for his underwater pics)

35. Photographical Paradox - Nitin Vishwas (the Pro photographer who hardly clicks pictures at Mumbai meets)

36. Mr. Mean Streak - Saurabh Goyal (he does have a mean streak in him ! Doesnt he ?)

37. Hedge fund buddies - PK & Amit (who plan to prosper by investing in laughing stocks as well as liquid stocks)

38. The Karate Kid - Manish Acharya (for suddenly discovering that he knew Karate)

39. Ialive award - Nishant Banore (for still staying alive despite teasing the Karate kid)

40. Ms. Nimbu Pani award - Saroni Ghosh the teetotaller ( Jamegi mehfil jab mil baithenge aap, main aur Nimbu Paani)

41. Navjot Sidhu award - Shruti Narayan (who used her infectious laughter to make us laugh at all Shishir jokes)

42. Con man's paradise - Pruthviraj Haral (Yes he is the boy who fell to the wolf cries)

43. Homer Simpson award - Given to the Junta on Facebook who actually thought that these awards are gonna be given for real at Hyderabad. (Duh ?)

44. Delli-6 award - Rishika (the brain behind the Dell deal) 

45. Mentor award - Raghav Wate (for being the first to accept me as his (tor)mentor !)

46. Bachha award - Ankur Vaish (aka Sodium for being the Bacche for UBI fellow)

47. Genda Phool award - Sweta (she loves her life too, a 25yr old, greedy, self-obsessed, competitive, ambitious, naughty one !)

48. Global ISBian - Vinit Garg (for having a blog with a global reach)

49. Khabri - Nitin Pulyani (for giving us the inside dope on ISB)

50. Destiny's child - Priyom Sarkar (for his accidents and achievements)

In case of any disputes, first take bath in ice-cold water & then shoot yourself in the butt !

Mumbai 9.5 - Enter the Waitlists !

Mumbai 9.5 happened on Wednesday 4th March at Apna dhaba, Andheri. After the grand chaos of Mumbai 9.0 where a sizeable crowd had gathered, Mumbai 9.5 was borne out of the necessity to connect better - courtesy a smaller crowd. So around 6-7 people were expected but we finally had about 14 people (Half of whom were waitlist-to-admit junta). So the spirits were high !

 

The meet began on a rather shocking note ! Discovered a species I didnt believe existed ! Enter re-applicant-cum waitlist convert no. 1: Shruti Narayan ! Shruti had managed to do the unthinkable - she not only laughed at all of Shishir's jokes (Yup ! ALL of them) but understood them at first crack ! And her infectious laugh ensured the others laughed along with her as well. That left even Shishir shocked - something he thought was not possible in his lifetime. 

We had in our midst a mystery women who would answer to the name M. You are most likely to spot her in Milan wearing Diesel branded clothes and being chased by Diesel salesman ! 

Her initial experience was good till the point the crowd mixed and she found herself sitting next to me. Food had just been served! Our conversation began as follows:

M: Anything vegetarian on the table?

Me: Yup ! 4 pcs of Nimbu and Pudina chatni !

She didnt know what hit her ! And she took a long time to recover. Hope I didnt put her off future meets !

Soon the discussion veered towards Laptops. At this point the man who answers to Gandhiji (and its derivatives) was at his best. Somebody asked him as to how one could gauge the speed of laptops ! To which he answered "You know its got a good speed if it can go from Powai to Ghatkopar in 10 mins". 

Then the debate on the best possible laptop - I proposed the Napkin ! It saved your lap, was extremely light, came in different colours & foldable into smaller sizes but unfortunately other than Pruthvi (who is a salesman's paradise) I found no takers !

Sid is Shishir's bunny i.e. Shishir can pull Sid's legs in 12 different directions at the same time (depending on Vaastu) ! All evening we had moments that were full of that.  At one point when they sat next to each other we had to clear the forks and knives from the table just in case Sid would attempt to kill Shishir. 

We also had the Angel Broker Red riding hood Neha in our midst. She was most of the time caught in the cross fire between Shishir and Sid. Poor girl was so traumatized by the experience that she was thinking twice even before uttering a word lest she got engaged in a cross-fire ! 

Shishir's childhood buddy Shweta was there. Shishir says that she is responsible for all his childhood's memories (and we all know that Shishir had a very disturbing childhood) ! 

Our Colonel Weed (Sandeep) was mostly busy plotting the next coup along with his deputy Vikram. He had arranged for the funding from M**hoot Finance for his deadly mission. 

We were joined in very late by Shishir's biggest admirer PK - for whom Shishir is nothing less than a magnet ! Wherever Shishir is present he follows - both in real world as well as the world wide web ! He was seen restlessly roaming around Apna Dhaba when Sid sat next to Shishir ! He would have almost wanted to kill Sid ! He and Amit quicky swooped on the group with the hedge fund idea ! And they found takers ! They invested my money in the laughing stocks ! I could now see their future:

Amit's enthusiasm was understandable given his exposure to childhood failytales.

We also had Maninder Gulati in our midst who was webcasting our meet on the net ! He told us about his years at ITC where he started out in the tobacco division but had to shift after he got addicted to it. Then he was enjoying at Product development for Fiama Di Wills where he would test the products on female models - a very much hands-on approach. Unfortunately fearing a s**ual harassment case he fled to where he was today ! 

We also had the 2nd Parag (Panjwani) in the group who was almost on a maun vrat ! He reminded me of a Blockbuster Kannada movie called "Tirupati" whose tagline was "When God is silent, he is violent" ! True to his name he uttered only Paanch Vaani during the entire evening. A quick message from our sponsorers -

The meet was a lot of fun with jokes and puns flying all over ! 

For all the guys/gals of other cities, the secret behind the successful Mumbai meets:

Try it and see the difference !

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 !