On Vanguard Business School

Most of you know that this is where I work, for the rest here is our  website:

www.vanguardbschool.com

Hope you find it interesting enough to support , visit, encourage and recommend.

On the day I made it through to Olam

[Aside]Have been wearingly busy  these last few days trying to cap a crucial month close, and what with a planned fly-by-wire trip to India to perform my Mom's (peace be upon her) Shraadh ceremony[/Aside]

Today,at lunchtime, I  got a call from a junior at IIFT, Archit Tiwari - absolutely ecstatic at having made it through to Olam in the lateral placements and , boy, did that take me right back to the same moment almost three years back !!

I remember that:

• I'd joined IIFT with Olam as one of the companies in sight as far as placements were concerned
• The idea was to focus on academics, rank among the toppers of the batch. Do a lot of club activities on the side( I enrolled for every club bar Koshish and that coz there was a cap on number of clubs we could join in our times), and spend two years gearing up for Olam !!
• That idea went for a toss so early into my IIFT stint that it wasn't even funny.I remember that in the run up for the IMF elections,when I finally decided to file my nomination for post of President, my wife (then Fiancee) specifically asking me why I wanted to stand for elections when that wasn't what how I'd planned my two years [ though heart of hearts I could sense she wasn't too upset with my change of plans  :D ]. 
• I ended trimester one  ranked 93 out 93  students on Delhi ( oh the reasons for that are hilarious, and embarassing!). NO topper by any stretch of imagination that!!
• After I got elected President, a fantastic story in its own right - one that I can and have only shared in its entirety with my wife and of course my fellow IMFers, I'd most given up any hope of coralling any good placement, but then the philosopher in me took over and I warrior-ed on..
• During finals, I made it through  Olam, and a weird feeling subsumed me. One that really wondered how two paths entire worlds apart culminated in the same thing (a path I imagined that lead me to Olam, and an entirely real life track that again ended up with me making it to Olam )

Three years post that day, I think , again that life hasn't exactly panned out as I'd planned these three years but it's been so much more learning, so much more fun , and so much more rewarding than I'd imagined.

To Peter Sayal, Gaurav Patil  & Archit Tiwari :

Welcome to Olam, guys.

You've just taken the red pill, now watch how deep the rabbit hole goes !!! 

Yennjoy !!

On Why Architects Refraining from Ganja is a good idea...

Well, one of my favourite artists of all times is Maurits C. Escher. Now he was known for capturing finer points of Riemannian, Lobachevskian and other more mathematically complex topologies through his art. His works span some of the more subtle concepts of relativity, dimensional bending,etc. apart from other stuff. The picture above is a print by him called "Relativity" (c.1953)

So what does this print have to do with architects ?
Just this: take a look at our hostel (the pic on top)...this maze of ladders and corridors leaves us feeling like snakes in one big game of "snakes and ladders" in the new hostel that we at IIFT call our home for now. Either the architect of this crazy maze was a fan of Escher like me, or he overdid his daily dose of ganja prior to designing our hostel, which brings me full circle back to the title of this blog as my parting thought....

Alright so you're a hot shot architect and the only way you can prove it to the world is by designing something that's way out of the ordinariness sweepstakes, but is it essential that you source your inspirations from dreams inspired by particularly potent variants of cannabis smoked by you and your buddies??



P.S. On second thoughts the Escher-esque topography of our hostel does seem to grow on one as the academic year progresses...but till then..:(

BT Acumen 2006

The North Zone Champs at ITC Grand Central Sheraton & Towers, Mumbai ( joy! :D)

The Debate Finals versus Sydenham

National Champs with host Harsha Bhogle

Winners All (l to r):Alumni Quiz Winners(South);Quiz Winners (IIM Bangalore);Debate Winners (IIFT)Swarnim and Me back at our room

(All Pics courtesy Manali)

My first day at JBIMS

Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) happens to be nestled in a cosy road not more than two minutes walk from T.I.M.E's Churchgate office which is itself bang opposite K.C. College which is less than a stone's throw from Churchgate station...JBIMS also happens to be one of the premier institutes for management education in India...

So, when my roommate Ravneet Gandhi wanted to shift into his hostel and needed help with samaan and generally for timepass, I accompanied him to J.S.Hall which happens to be the hostel for the JBites....

We spent the night there, with me farting to be a JBite myself, a night hyphenated by my "seniors" ragging me!!(rotflmao)... one fine night, also, these JB seniors of Ravneet's, they're fine people-- helpful, fun-loving, and concerned about the welfare of their juniors...

Only dampener to the night was probably the fact that I dislocated my kneecap, while dancing for the seniors during ragging, and that, I'll have to live with the agony of, for the next three days, at least.....

Congrats to Dorli,Kates,and Ankoos Boy..

Dorli, got thru to PUMBA and is probably eyeing the IIMs later this year, well byesht luck!!..so with KT and Ankush I guess, they're headed to Sydenham & Welingkar respectively...I'm at Bandra at Ankush's place about to launch into a booze party and missing the presence of KT..BTW Bhau Rao Shinde, a.k.a Thote Bhau has also graced this auspicious occasion with his presence..Daru zindabad, hakkka noodle zindabad,bindaas party, uske baad mai vomit maarti!!( he he he..sorry for the pathetic PJ:D)

INNNJoy!!!