Godrej sponsored Mumbai trip

After juggling for two long months and mails going back and forth, we finally got the dates that suited our academic schedule as well as to the schedules of the top bosses of Godrej Sara Lee Ltd.

We (the nine of us) had won a competition organised by Godrej and the prize was a two days sponsored trip to Godrej campus in Mumbai, including the air fare.

We started early, on the morning of October 22, 2009. When we reached Mumbai airport, two air-conditioned-chauffeur-driven Innovas were already waiting for us. We got so excited when, for the first time, we saw someone holding our name plates outside the airport.

Day 1 was reserved for Mumbai sight seeing. We started with Bandra sealink (yeah.. that is one of the new attractions of Mumbai) and went on to Haji Ali and Mahalakshmi temple. We'd a lavish lunch at Relish near Nariman Point. As they say food tastes better, if it's free.

Later, we went to the usual places viz. Marine drive, Gateway of India, Taj hotel etc. They'd arranged for our accomodation at Godrej's guest house, but I preferred to stay at home.

Day 2 was reserved for meeting with the top bosses of GSLL:

• Mr. K.Somanathan - Executive Vice President (PSO)
• Mr. R.S. Gopalakrishnan - Associate Vice President (Manufacturing H&BC North East)
• Mr. Vinod Salve - Marketing Head
• Ms Pooja Sharma - HR Manager
• Dr. Sreedhar - R & D Head

They gave us a series of presentations giving us an overall idea about how things work in their respective departments.

At the end of the day, we met Mr. A. Mahendran (MD, GSLL). It was hardly a 10 minutes meeting, but the whole staff was on its toes for the said duration.

Later, we clicked few pictures in the Godrej campus and left.

It's not everyday that you get to meet people, at the top of corporate ladder, explaining the nitty-gritties of business. All in all it was a memorable and learning experience, besides, I got some new friends!

Please click here to see some more snaps.

Sanghamitra & HR Conclave

We'd two major events in our college in this week - Sanghmitra (3rd Sept) and HR Conclave (5th Sept).

The two events present the extreme flavours. On one hand is Sanghmitra, which is year's first cultural festival, filled with youthfulness and on the other hand is HR Conclave that brings together the corporate HR heads of top firms to speak on a theme.

I got a chance to do the compering in HR Conclave where I did a goof up. Instead of thanking a speaker for his speech and apologising for a technical glitch that occured, I said "Thank you Sir for the technical glitch". Needless to say the whole auditorium was in laughter.

Some snaps of the events.

Godrej competition

Won an air trip to Mumbai, two days stay and visit to Godrej campus in a competition organised by Godrej.

Certainly one of the high points of my stay at Great Lakes!

Photoshoot

We'd a photoshoot in the college today. The pictures taken will be used in various brochures. Here are some shots taken by personal cameras.

HR Conclave Team

Amphitheatre in the background

My hostel room

Jam session

Had a jam session today in the boy's hostel from 2 AM to 4 AM. Most of the guys were completely drunk. Some snaps:

Basketball Court

Finally, the college's basketball court is ready for playing. Hope to spend some good time there!

PS: The length of the writeup reflects twitter effect.

Karma Yoga Project

We've started working on the Karma Yoga project. We need to work for three hours every week in a village. The initial few visits require us to survey a village and identify the problems to work upon. Needless to say, we are thoroughly enjoying the serene beauty and the laid-back village life. Some snaps:

End of first term

With a series of exams in the last few days, we've finished our first term. This week has been particularly hectic. We'd to work on one book review, one assignment, one presentation, and three end term exams. I've slept for hardly 10 hours in the last 72 hours.

Anyway, I'm 1/7th MBA now (assuming I get thru all the courses). Celebrations are already in the air. Everyone is planning for the coming long weekend. I'm planning to go to Mumbai, if things workout.

Officially blogger

We've a formal blogging committee that maintains the college blog. My SOP for the same, which was supposed to be as casual as possible, read something like:

The most obvious response would be something like:
“I want to be a part of the college blogging team so that I can be of help in creating a better brand image of the institute in the virtual world and taking it to newer heights.”

But, that didn’t impress me itself, leave alone the reader. Then, the usual thought of Googling for a SOP came to my mind, but that’s what we usually do for all the assignments. So, for a change, I thought to be original this time and started to think for something creative. Alas!

Now the problem with the creative portion of our brain is that the moment you are in need for some ideas it starts sending the signs of its non-existence (Can something really send signs of its non-existence could be a topic of empirical research though).

While engrossed in my thoughts, I looked at the word count and realised that I’ve already crossed the prescribed limit of 150 words. So, here I’m, in this hot and humid summer afternoon of Chennai, sweat flowing all thru my body, still waiting, for my creative juices to flow.

Till few months back, I used to visit this blog to know more about the college. It feels great to have my name as one of the bloggers on the same blog.

Please click here to visit my college's blog.

Washroom humour!

Just after writing the Group Dynamics exam, I was talking with one of my friends in the washroom. As after every exam, we're totally frustrated.

Our Economics Prof, who is considered to be one of the most ferocious Profs, entered the washroom. I wished the Prof, but my friend, who was standing facing the other side, didn't see him.

My friend: "Saale ne bola tha movies se question aayenge..."
The Prof hearing this smiled and gave me that so-this-is-going-on look. I wanted to let my friend know about the Prof's presence.

Me: "Sir, the paper was very tough."
But, my friend didn't listen and continued.
Me: (trying harder)"Sir, the paper was really very tough."
But, of no use.

I started laughing by now, knowing we are screwed.
Prof: (Smiling and speaking in Hindi)"Tum log khud kuch padhte nahin ho aur phir exam ke baad faculty ko gaali dete ho."
My friend turned back and realised what'd just happened. The Prof still smiling went ahead. We were looking at each other, thinking what to do next.

My friend: "Sir, it was just frustration coming out and not our intentions." (waah! some damage control).
Immediately the Prof turned.

Prof: "Tum log mujhe to bahut gaaliyan dete hoge?"
I don't know what was going into my mind,but I replied within a split second.
Me: "Sir, abhi apka exam nahin hua hai."
I still can't believe I said that!

Within few hours everyone in the college knew about the incident. Later in the day, we'd a Eco lecture. We were really scared, but the Prof didn't point us for anything.

We hope he took it as just another incident. We are now waiting for our final grades to confirm that!

Main campus

A view of our college's main campus - consists of amphitheater surrounded by academic block. Click on the image to see the enlarged view.

Karma Yoga Project Inauguration

20th May 2009, Chennai: Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai inaugurated the Karma Yoga Project in collaboration with Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) Kalpakkam at the Great Lakes’ newly built campus. Dr. Saibaba, Director IGCAR formally inaugurated the Karma Yoga event. The other prominent dignitaries present for the event were Mr. Reddy, MD MARG Constructions, Prof. Xavier, PGPM Director and Prof. Venkat Krishnan, Head of Karma yoga committee at Great lakes.

As part of the project the institute is going to adopt 12 villages in the vicinity of Kalpakkam and students will work in groups for the development of these villages. The students will identify the key areas of improvement from among healthcare, education, sanitation etc and work on them for the next five months. The institute will facilitate students with all the necessities. IGCAR and Marg Constructions have also promised to support the students.


PS: Wrote this press brief as part of the application process to apply for college's Branding & PR committee. Though I couldn't make to the final list of the committee, but we'll start working soon on the Karma Yoga project.

My interview experiences

I got Group Discussion (GD) and Personal Interview (PI) calls from two B-schools on last weekend.

On Friday, it was for Great Lakes, Chennai. The venue was Hotel Tunga Paradise, Andheri and timing was 11.30 AM. I reached the venue on time. The whole admission process was conducted by the students only as GL is a student driven institute. The crowd looked impressive. I got a chance to interact with few guys and found most of them had 3-5 years of experience. Some of the guys were dressed in business suits. I was among the very few, who were not even wearing a tie.

After the documents verification, I went in for the interview. There were two guys in the panel. One person was from industry and other one was an alumni. Both were very cool and were smiling all the time. They asked questions about how things work in IT, deadlines, project estimates, day-to-day activities, difference between working in USA and India. The interview lasted for around 25-30 minutes, but there was no stress at all as the questions were restricted within my domain only. When I came out I couldn’t believe the PI was already over.

The GD was also cool as everyone got chance to speak and it was followed by a psychometric test of 10 minutes. The whole process was very smooth and overall it took 2.5 hours to complete.

On Sunday, had a GD/PI call for SP Jain Dubai-Singapore programme. The venue was SP Jain Mumbai campus and timing was 2.30 PM. I reached before time and had to wait for one hour for the process to start.

There was no GD. We were given a case-study and were to answer the questions in 45 minutes and had to write two essays in 15 minutes. After the documents verification, it was interview time. People from earlier slots were already waiting, so we had to wait for our turn and it was a long wait.

By the time my turn came, at around 5, I was already tired of waiting. I went in and found two old khadoos professors in the panel (P1 and P2). After the initial greetings, they started firing the questions.

P1: We've gone through your profile. First of all tell us, how come your acads are so poor?
Me: (I know I’ve average acads, but POOR?? Anyway, tried to give some explanation.) Always wanted to do an MBA and was not much focussed in engineering.. blah.. blah..

P1: How do we know that you'll be focussed in MBA?
Me: Sir, this is what I always wanted to do.

P1: You said you were not focussed in your engineering, but why do you have poor scores in school also?
Me: Umm..well..actually..I mean..you know..

P1: How did you get admission in DAVV college? Was there any payment seat?
Me: Sir, it's University's own college. There are no payment seats. I got through pre-engineering test. Actually I had an All India Rank of..

P1: (Cutting me in between) So you got through some test.
Me: (Huh..some test..I took an year's gap to prepare for it) Yes sir.

P1: You've mentioned that you did your schooling from CBSE. Which school was it?
Me: Central School, Mhow.

P1: Mhow?
Me: Mhow is a small town near Indore.

P1: Oh! That Army Headquarter?
Me: Yes sir. I've done most of my schooling from there. I've lived most formative years of my life there and have lived closely with Army people.

P1: Is that the reason for your poor performance?
Me: Sir?

P1: There is a lot of freedom in that society and I guess you misused your freedom.
Me: Umm..(where is it going?)

P1: What is the biggest achievement of your life that you are proud of?
Me: It was when I was titled Best Student of the year in school. Normally, the School Captain gets this title. Even though I was not the School Captain, still I was given this title as an exception.

P1: Do you think you were very popular in your school?
Me: Not exactly popular, but people liked me.

P1: Why?
Me: I'm a likable person. Even in my college and in my organisation people like me.

P1: And you still don't help yourself?
Me: Sir?

P1: You don't help yourself and perform so poorly in your acads.
Me: (Acads again!) Umm..

Later P2 asked me about Satyam fraud, IT best practices, social issues, my hobbies etc, but P1 kept cutting me in between to ensure that I’d not get comfortable at any moment.

I came out, not sure what went inside or how long it went. They’ve a second round of interview with Dean, if the first round is cleared. I was definitely not expecting, but got a call for it immediately after coming out. I was surprised, but was not in a state to feel anything though only a few moments back I'd seen a girl in tears when she got a call for Dean's interview.

The Dean too started with the same question about my decent GMAT score, but my not-so-good acads. It was a short interview and he asked about my career aspirations, why SP Jain and some usual stuff. He kept marking and writing notes on my application form without looking at me, not sure even if he was listening to my responses.

The whole process took around 6-7 hours to complete and included a lot of waiting time. I mentioned this as a scope of improvement in my feedback form also.

It is very difficult to predict how an interviewer judges a candidate. Both the interviews were extreme in nature. The only thing common was that I came out smiling.

And for now I'm just keeping my fingers crossed!