Ek khel sa tha woh bachpan ka..

Ek khel sa tha woh bachpan ka

Jab chupa karte the apne kahin

Tab kisi baat ki fiqr kahan thi

Kuch sochne ka waqt nahi

Umar badhi aur khel naye

Duniya se kiye mel naye

Mel reh gaya e-mail tak

Kabhi mahol nahi kabhi waqt nahi

Ek khel sa tha who bachpan ka

Jab chupa karte the apne kahin

Aaj bhi ek khel hai

Khel hai woh bachpan sa

Par chupe hue hain raaz kayi

Muddaton tak humne khoja

Waqt ki ret phisalti rahi

Apne jo mil jaate the khel mein

Woh khel rahe hain khel kayi

Har khel ek paheli hai

Har paheli ke jawab kayi

Ek khel sa tha who bachpan ka

Jab chupa karte the apne kahin

Aao phir jee lein us khel ko

Woh bachpan ke us mel ko

Jab khelna jeewan tha 

Aur jeewan ek khel nahi

Phir banayein woh kahaniyan

Woh bachpan ki hairaniyan

Apne phir se dhoondein bhi

Baarish ki woh boondein si

Bachpan ki woh baatein

Phir samente woh yaadein

Jab khelna jeewan tha 

Aur jeewan ek khel nahi

Ek khel sa tha woh bachpan ka

Jab chupa karte the apne kahin

My first year as an Entrepreneur :)

Technically, its not the first year as i have been involved in entrepreneurial projects for over 3 years now. Also there are still 3 months before 'Discover Life' completes its first year.
But yes, this year i have been working full time post completing my MBA as an Entrepreneur. It has been one awesome ride all along. Reflecting back at some of my experiences this year i would like to share some insights particularly for all the young budding entrepreneurs who undergo our entrepreneurship program in schools and well for anyone who reads this blog post :)


Some random thoughts..

• The good and the bad : Everyday at some point of time as an entrepreneur there comes a feeling 'You own the world' and almost everyday there are moments when you feel like 'Leave everything and run away'. Thats the crazy life, the life of an entrepreneur :)
• The journey: It is not going to be easy.Your worst nightmares will come true. Learn to move on and get up every time you fall.
• Big bad world: There is nothing called big bad world of business. Most grey areas are due to people. You find dark shaded in people everywhere whether it be job or business. 
• Does an MBA help? : Indian education system or for that matter any other education system in the traditional form does not prepare people to become entrepreneurs. But yes awareness and knowledge through education helps an entrepreneurial mind.
• The biggest challenge in early days: Cash :)
• How to overcome it: Patience, Persistence and Belief. Biggest of all- 'Jugaad'.
• Believe. You can change the world.
• Become humble when you become Great. Till then love what you do and take pride in whatever you do. 'Jo khud se ishq nahi kar sakta, woh kisi aur se kya ishq karega'.
• The best day to start is today. Age old belief works. Verified.
• Be crazy. It helps :)
• Have plans and work hard. Harder than you would in a full time job. Smart work sounds cool but for all great things in life you need to sweat it out.
• Failure is cool. Believe in this or else as an entrepreneur you would go nuts.
• Patience and persistence are hell important and what is more important is knowing when to use which of the two.
• It is not rocket science. You figure out once in water.
• Entrepreneurs don't die hungry.

Cheers to one rocking year :) Wishing everyone a great year ahead :)

The 4:00am drive! :)

This post is a sequel to the post i had written in a very similar mood 1.5 years back while i was driving at 3:30am coming back to campus after my first year MBA:

http://liveyourdreamstruely.blogspot.com/2009/06/330am-drive.html

Its something about the early morning drives that refreshes your mind, makes your thoughts deep and reflective. Like the earlier 3:30 am drive in my previous post, even today i was driving to drop somebody. I had to drop Amit, my friend and co-founder of Discover Life to a bus stand so that he could catch a bus for meetings in schools in Chandigarh scheduled later in the day.

Since the last 3:30 am drive things have changed. I have passed out of MDI Gurgaon and now pursuing my entrepreneurial aspirations. The second year was all the more eventful at MDI :). Will miss those days always. But the amazing thing is that some of my best friends for life are working in gurgaon itself and i can anytime go and re-live our memories :)

Also in my earlier post i had talked about not joining a corporate. I have been lucky enough and crazy enough to actually do that after 1.5 years :) Life has been an exciting ride. Working on something new everyday, the highs and lows, adventures and lots of misadventures :). But enjoying these moments to the full. Staying at home, eating ghar ka khana and playing badminton with friends daily. Priceless! :)

And as i drive back home singing out loud with the car radio 'chal chalein apne ghar', I feel liberated :)

No food in belly..but dreams in their eyes..

Amongst all the shame, chaos, fear and hatred for things happening around, the young sporting talent from India has won hearts worldwide. With their fairytale stories, these young Indians represent the new India to the world. No food, education, training and environment to win, they still managed to shine with dreams in their eyes, putting blood and sweat in their efforts, having a crazy level of belief in themselves, breaking the chains around them to stamp their presence on the world.

This is the young India. Fearless in its approach, creating their own path moving beyond the conventional, taking risks, full of pride, taking on the world. They live dreams. In the form of young athletes, students, entrepreneurs, professionals we have a breed of young heroes ready to take the nation forward.

The red carpet is laid and the young restless dreamy eyed Indians are ready to walk and dance on the world stage like never seen before.

Jai Hind

'HINDI' Hai Hum Watan Hai Hindustan Hamara

Did revolutionary poet, Iqbal, use 'Hindi' in context of a language, we would never know. But we know one thing for sure, that the beautiful poem 'Saare Jahan Se Accha Hindustan Hamara' talks about the importance of our cultural heritage, things that are our own, being proud of our identity and the amazing things about our nation which truly give us the feeling of national pride.

One such thing is our language 'Hindi'. All languages are great. I wish I could learn more of them and still plan to do so sometime. But being born and brought up in Delhi, Hindi was a language in which I grew up and have my memories itched(had this random conversation with a friend about thoughts and memories running in our minds in a certain language).

'Jungle jungle baat chali hai' was a kids anthem. The hindi comics of nagraj and bankelaal were my most eagerly awaited reads :D. I did read a lot of English books too, but Hindi as a language has its own charm. The poems I used to read in 'Hindi' such as 'Satpura ke ghane jungle, neend mein doobe hue se, undhte anmane jungle' at school time still echo in my mind and those simple yet true to life stories of Premchand made what my childhood imagination was.

These days we observe children at very young age talking to their parents in English and parents feel proud to showcase their kids' English verbal skills. It is nice to see kids learn so much at such young age but then it feels sad to see them lose connect with certain things that are essential to building the national pride in their hearts and minds. Somewhere we are weakening the very foundation of building up our nation.

Now its difficult to imagine losing connect with one's roots through non usage of a particular language. I can give my own example where due to being born and brought up in Delhi, I never really considered learning 'Maithili' which is my native language during my childhood. Now I regret not knowing the beautiful language and its nuances which also gives me a great sense of disconnect with the entire culture in which my ancestors were brought up.

I hope this disconnect does not happen with our nation and its young people on the basis of treating 'Hindi' as a secondary or an obsolete language.

Our hopes rest on a poetic line again by Muhammad Iqbal:

KUCH BAAT HAI KI HASTI MITATI NAHIN HUMARI..

Jai Hind

10 reasons why working from home rocks :) A Startup Insight :)

For many startups the first office is that extra room/basement in the house where the crazy entrepreneurial ideas take shape. Let me give you my 10 reasons why working from home truly rocks :)

• Unlimited supply of tea and coffee: Custom made from mom's kitchen at any time of the day to lift your spirits :)
• Take a bath at any time of day: Don't have to wake up early morning and get ready for work. Taking bath at 1:00pm works great
• Work attire: Tshirts and Pyjamas rock
• Freedom of sleep: Take a nap at any time of the day and well you can sleep all day as well
• Music: Be it random FM music, Ghazals, Rock or the regular Bollywood music. You are allowed to play all day at the volume levels you like
• Work Life balance : You don't have parents complaining that you don't spend time at home. Although sometimes they do wish you stay out for peace ;)
• Travel: Having worked for one year in Gurgaon and travelling 4 hours everyday from home to work, not travelling to office is a luxury. Though drives are still there but just for fun :)
• Home cooked food: My friends staying away from home would really support me on this point. Home cooked food totally rocks
• Watch all you want: Be it movies or TV Series, its all available on the TV next room or on your laptop or better still go to the movie hall in the middle of the day any time on the week to catch the latest flick
• MASTI: With entrepreneurial friends around, we gang up any time, create a lot of bhasad, play badminton, drive around, roam around in markets and have awesome masti :)

PS: Entrepreneurship involves crazy levels of hard work, but well for all this fun, its worth it :)

Are we dead within, I hope we are not..

These are few lines i wrote to address the audience beginning the Social Week at MDI last year:

Our bodies look alive,

But are we dead within, i hope we are not..

Murders and killings don't affect us but cough and cold freaks us out,

Are we dead within, i hope we are not..

Mother earth is crying but we aren't listening,

Are we dead within, i hope we are not..

The future if this country in form of tiny hands go unnoticed begging on red lights,

Are we dead within, i hope we are not..

Faith & Religion the messengers of love have become thirsty for blood,

Are we dead within, i hope we are not..

People are dying because of obesity and people are dying because of hunger,

Are we dead within, i hope we are not..

Freedom for us is to break laws and create chaos,

Are we dead within, i hope we are not..

We all know of things affecting us but wait for others to start the action,

Are we dead within, i hope we are not..

The youth of this nation, this gathering gives me hope that we aren't dead within,

And i truly hope we are not..

Starting Early!

I still remember as a 8 year old kid, I used to go along with my Dadaji to market to shop for bread and vegetables. After a couple of years, my Dadaji gave me an incentive of earning Rs.2/- daily if I bought the stuff independently going to the market each evening. I was proud to earn my Rs.2/- daily and used to keep them in a small piggy bank. This was my first lesson in life. Lesson in taking initiative, working independently, earning by effort and most importantly savings and money management.

There were frequent power cuts in those days and during summers it used to get really hot sitting in candle light inside my home. After few days of saving money, one evening when there was a power cut, I took money out of my piggy bank and bought ice creams for my family. Everyone was smiling :). I was proud. This was my first lesson in creating value. The value was happiness :)

Over a period of time, I have developed money management skills and applied them in the organizations that I created along with my partners. When I look back, those Rs.2/- lessons are one of the biggest lessons I have learned in life.

Discover Life's EDEP(Entrepreneurship Development Program) is an initiative at Starting Early.

The Entrepreneurs of tomorrow are in schools today :)

- Chaitanya Jha

Be your own Jamvant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im4Zz-shBac&feature=PlayList&p=1D0B599C262A725A&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=31

Watching the above video, my mind got filled with so many memories of watching Ramayan in my childhood days. The above video is describing a particular scene:

The search party lead by Jamvant, the strong and bravest person of the bear race, reached on the seashore. Jamvant encouraged Hanuman Ji to give the Jump on to Lanka. Hanuman Ji, when being encouraged as such, filled with the lost powers, which were snatched from him, when he was a child, by the curse of a Rishi (SAINT), but he was also booned by the same RISHI, that he would get all the lost powers, when he would be encouraged by anybody reminding him about his powers. He crossed the vast sea taking a long great jump and met Sita Ji and gave her the message of Shri Ram.

When I think of it, it happens to all of us in life. There are times when we become much smaller and much less important in our own eyes than we actually are. We are afraid to take 'the leap'. Our self confidence takes a beating and we get used to performing much below our own capacity. And all this happens without notice. We get stuck in a cycle of life which is really difficult to get out of.

In all those moments of life, no Jamvant would come to remind us of our powers. Rather we have to be our own Jamvant and remind ourselves of the times we did really well in life. It may be in simple small things. But those are the things that remind us of who we truly are. Thus, time and again in life, we need to stop for a moment and reflect whether we are playing our best game in life.

Be your own Jamvant. You get this life only once. Take the big leap.Discover Life.

(Smart Indian Value System is a program by Discover Life which is an effort to bring back the Strong Indian values and make it relevant for children of today)

Some people touch your life :)

There are times when you so regret your decision of going to some family function. Its around 3:00 at night and i have come back home from a marriage of a distant relative and i am surprisingly feeling very good. I hadn't met Pooja di for so many years now, but as soon as the news came that she was about to marry, i knew i would be there to be a part of this special occasion.

Pooja di used to visit our house whenever she used to have small trips of Delhi few years back. I used to be an average 12 year old child at that time. Both of us shared something in common, our inclination towards writing. I used to show her my poetry and she used to comment in disbelief 'how can a child of your age write such poetry'. Then to prove myself, i used to write more and make her read that. She applauded my writing skills in front of my parents. That was a rarity. Somebody praising me for some special skill i had. That boosted my self worth a great deal. I felt good about myself. It helped me a lot in my life.

This day at marriage venue, when i met her on stage, she exclaimed ' ohh, its the same chap who used to write great poetry' and even while we were briefly discussing things over the years, she looked at me and said 'don't ever let the poet die inside you, keep writing'.

And well its been super long time since i have written a poem, but Pooja di these few lines are for you:

When the world is continuously working to make it difficult for you to survive;

Some people come and touch your life.

In this cruel criticizing world, words of appreciation are a relief;

Its something that helps you re-store your self belief.

Thanks for being my life's important part;

May God bless you and give your new life a wonderful start :)

Shraddha Aur Saboori

Faith is a beautiful thing. It is one of the most precious gifts of life. Faith in oneself, faith in people around you and in my case faith in God. Being born in a Hindu family I have come across numerous forms of deities that are worshiped sacredly. Everyone finds their own faith, their own God, they own path to spirituality and their own manner of Godly connect at their own time in life.

I was lucky to find my own faith in life quite early. I am a person with a deep connect with my inner self and God. My dad used to take me to Sai Baba mandir every thursday since i was just 7-8 months old at Lodhi Road in Delhi. I myself started visiting Sai Baba Temple in Rohini every thursday consciously all alone since I was in class 10th. I am lucky to be able to follow this habit till date or rather its Baba's blessings that allows me this privilege.

The Sai Baba temple at Rohini is a very unique place. People from all over Delhi travel long distances to come here every thursday. An amazing thing about the temple is that you can listen the group of temple singers sing ardas in punjabi, hindi bhajans and sufi quawwalis all in one evening. Such integration of religions and such diverse secular follower ship is hard to find. There are people who sit and clap on the bhajans and quawwalis, and such atmosphere gets created that there is a group of young followers who get so lost in clapping that their hands begin to bleed at times! But it is an atmosphere to be experienced and felt. It truly is amazing.

Sai Baba have gained amazing follower ship in past 100 years and is truly comparable to the follower ship of other Gods which have been preached over past thousands of years. One must visit Shirdi at least once in life. That is one of the most peaceful religious places that you can visit. Its amazing to see how the life of an entire town Shirdi revolves around the Sai Baba temple.

I have always gone to Baba's doors with questions, doubts, issues and problems in life and I have always found answers and its been nothing short of magical. My faith in God and Life just continues to grow :)

'Shraddha aur Saboori' mean 'Faith and Patience'. These are the one of key teachings of Sai Baba which always work for any stage in Life :)

Jai Sairam

Only God at MTNL can help you :)

Forgive me God for i know not what i did ;)

Its been many days since me and my friend have been regularly visiting the room no 7 center table, MTNL Rohini office.. Yes, we dared :) We dared to get some post sale service from MTNL :) It wasn't even service but we were just trying to return a broadband modem at the office for disconnection purpose.

What next happened can be explained by only God/Gaud. The Rohini MTNL office, room no 7 center table is occupied by somebody with the name Mr. Gaud who collects the device for disconnecting the broadband. When we heard this the first time, my remark was ' bhai sach mein MTNL mein to sirf God (Gaud) hi kuch kaam kar sakta hai'. But what followed was more remarkable. We went to the office 3-4 times at different timings, but the seat remained vacant. We never found a man there. The lady sitting on the adjacent seat assured us that a man sits there sometime and he does collect the device as well.

But our suspicion grew. We actually felt that finally MTNL had accepted the reality and created an empty chair. Mr Gaud is actually God. MTNL also is in hope that someday God/Gaud/Whatever would arrive at the seat and finish all their pending work.

Till then we mere mortals would still visit the office with the hope in the age old saying 'Dhoondne se to Bhagwaan bhi milta hai' :D

Wealth is being lost commonly!! Commonwealth 2010!!

Delhi govt. is sharing the cost of running Commonwealth Games 2010 with the Delhi residents now. Thus wealth is being lost commonly by all. Ohh!! Delhi is getting ready for commonwealth games ;)

Let newspapers and media channels continue with their analysis of the timelines, infrastructure requirements and budgetary allocations for the games. They have interesting material to run an entire season on, which can give kyunki saas bhi bahu thi a run for its money.

Lets see some random stuff that helps us think of arrival of commonwealth games as observed by me and another friend in last few days:

• A traffic policeman came in way of my friend on a random street and what we heard was something difficult to believe. The policeman said 'sorry' for obstructing the way. Ohh!! Delhi is getting ready for commonwealth games ;)
• I along with a friend went to an MTNL office to get an internet connection and the lady sitting on inquiry counter said 'You will get regular service'. MTNL promising service!! Ohh!! Delhi is getting ready for commonwealth games ;)
• The Naraina flyover which has been under construction since the last ice age opened for usage from one side. Although the construction is faulty and now we have jams on the flyover itself but Naraina flyover becoming operational!!Ohh!! Delhi is getting ready for commonwealth games ;)
• There is an instrument fit outside Palika Bazaar which is worth lakhs of rupees and its objective is to purify the surrounding air for a particular radius. It seems stupid that such expenditure is being incurred on stuff that least matters, rather they could have spend on building clean public toilets at regular intervals rather than on purifying the Palika bazaar air or advertisement spend on Susu Kumar campaign. But govt. spending lacs on hifi gizmo that cleans air. Ohh!! Delhi is getting ready for commonwealth games ;)

I am sure there are many more random things to be seen in the coming days. Hail commonwealth ;)

HORN OK PLEASE

'Bawan (52) ke phool, pachpan (55) ki mala,boori nazar waley tera mooh kala'

While travelling on highways at time the landscapes become repetitive, but there are various things that catch your interest. One such thing is the random shayari and messages written on the back of trucks and tempos.

Take this one:

'Seekh le beta drivery,

phoote tere karam,

roti milegi kabhi kabhi,

sona agle janam'

One can find a wide range of messages.

Some senti messages of broken hearts,

some social messages,

some prayers to God

and some just odd (this one rhymed too ;))

Some just hilarious:

'After whisky Jatt is risky'

or this one written on the back of a tempo:

'Bada hoke mai truck banunga'

A lot of them are real creative expressions of the truck drivers who spend so much time on road with their beloved vehicle. Its their way of making people take notice of their sweetheart truck.

However random they may be they make the journey so much more interesting. Sometimes after dull moments one spots such a quote and ends up in splits.

So HORN OK PLEASE and USE DIPPER AT NIGHT :)

'Maalik ki Zindagi fruit aur cake pe, Driver ki Zindagi steering aur brake pe'

Samaritans :)

Samaritans- The social initiative club of MDI.

Samaritans is a club which binds students each year with a common thread called humanity.

Samaritans is a symbol of the fact that the future managers and leaders are not just motivated by money and exploiting the resources but also by the developing resources and efficient utilization and sharing.

Samaritans is an effort towards creating a better tomorrow, a tomorrow where we the people move away from competition to a happy co-existence with ourselves and with mother earth.

Samaritans is a hope that all is not lost in this frantic pace of life, a hope that our hearts are still warm with compassion, a hope that we still believe in a better tomorrow for not 'me' but 'us'.

Samaritans is a movement towards smiles, smiles which become the ray of hope and spirit of life.

Samaritans is a start towards exploring the simple happiness of life, it is a guide towards the real things which give satisfaction and a meaning to our existence.

Samaritans is an attempt to give voices to choked throats and create an impression on deaf ears and closed eyes, an attempt to make sure that the next bomb explosion, the next cry of a mother, the next empty stomach, the next begging hand on the street doesn't go unnoticed.

And as one of my team mates said the motto of Samaritans is ,''We are working to create a future when we won't be needed'' :)

P.S.: Samaritans through its range of student driven social initiative activities and along with the initiatives of center for sustainability, MDI has made MDI, Gurgaon one of the most active B-Schools in the country in terms of social responsibility and initiative.

Karthik Calling Karthik !!

This is not a movie review. I saw Karthik calling Karthik by paying Rs. 200 for the ticket yesterday night, felt cheated and well I just thought that if a chinese telephone could take revenge (in the movie) so can i by writing this blog post ;)

After a long time i saw the crowd running towards exit door when finally the movie ended. It is difficult to describe my feelings after the movie was over. It was a mix of disgust, anger, frustration mingled with a growing headache.

Karthik calling Karthik is not just a movie, its a lot more.

While pondering over the movie story and director's attempts at playing with the audience's mind I could understand that there is a greater secret behind this movie. This movie is an attempt by players like Nokia etc. against the chinese handsets which have been capturing their markets off late. What this movie does is create an impact on the mind of the audience in such a manner that they would get irritated and frustrated each time they see a chinese landline or mobile handset. Thus this is a unique competitive strategy (and you thought its just a movie).

Well to think of any learning out of this movie, I would just say that looking at the joy on audience's face when they ran towards the exit doors its true that all bad things come to an end ;)

My recommendation: Take your girlfriend to this movie if you want to dump her or if you are a person of suicidal tendencies watch Ram Gopal Verma's Phoonk 2 instead. Atleast you won't die of confusion.

The extraordinary league of crazy entrepreneurs ;)

This post my friends is a non-humble tribute to us ;) We the most unconventional, crazy, unorthodox, bhasadi to the core, full of life, unique and uncompromising set of people are set to re-define how the world looks at things and life in general :)

Well we the league of entrepreneurs and set to dance on the stage of life, setting our rules and of course breaking the existing ones, mixing fun and work together to create magic.

Let me take the opportunity to introduce us to the world :)

You see above, Rohit Sharma, the original Jatt of our gang. He would give a damn to the orthodox ways in which world functions :) By qualification, he is a lawyer but every morning he wakes up at 5:30 am to wash cars and in the day times he makes chocolates ;)

Rohit is a part of a two year old business venture called Clean 'n' Care which specializes in professional car cleaning services in housing societies. Bringing professionalism into a very organised sector, Clean 'n' Care is a welcome relief to inefficient daily car cleaners.

Rohit is also a part of Choco Mishtham, the handmade chocolate business which is working in the domain of creating customized chocolates.

Beware of the guy you see above, Captain Himanshu Shekhar's simple life fundas, easy going lifestyle, and an ever infectious smile even in the most stressful times can get to you :)

A pilot by profession (this is a long story about what random things he was doing before he finally became a pilot), this guy is into redefining the scrap market. His venture 'Kabadu' is trying to professionalize the fragmented scrap (kabadi) pickers from your households. These days he is experimenting with tons of any kinds of industrial scrap (what he does with it is still a mystery to the world ;) ). His latest venture 'Campus Ghanta' is set to ring a lot of bells ;) in the heart of campus going crowd. Thats a surprise, I won't reveal much but I have a good instinct that it is going to be a big hit :)

The guy in above picture is one hell of an entrepreneur and is one of those people who are born to change the world :) This guy is the one who has spread this virus of entrepreneurship in all of us. Let me introduce to the world, Mr. Amit Gupta, President of a 3 year old NGO Sanskaari, and is part of the following startups: Clean 'n' Care (professional car cleaning), Swatch (mineral water manufacturing), Choco Mishtham (Customized handmade chocolates), Kabadu (Organized scrap), Campus Ghanta (Secret project :p ) and very recently 'Discover Life' a venture which is set to redefine education, produce leaders and give a new perspective to world.

How can a person humanly manage so many things?? Only watching him working on all this would make you believe it :)

And well, I am also somewhere trying my hand at a few things, taking inspiration from the people above, signing out of placements (now berozgaar :) ) .. Unsure of what is coming next..

But I am sure of one thing, with my gang of crazy entrepreneurs, we are set to rock the stage..

Bring it on world, we have arrived :)

What to extract from 2 years at a top B-School?

The B-school Bureaucracy perspective:

Top B-schools act as an automatic filter at the entry level for students, so even if there is no value addition in 2 years the students still get placed at decent positions in the corporate. Thus, why should a B-school make an effort to add value to the students, if top profile students come at entry level and top companies line up at the end of two years to place them?

Just rely on a negetive sadist system of relative grading for checking the value addition to students.

Finally the impact on students is that they develop a crab mentality and learn to trick the system and they become so expert in this that when they enter the corporate they still apply their experience of tricking the system, using politics to move around in the organization.

Though there may be some value driven visionaries at top postions in a good B-School but they are highly out numbered by the ones who play power games and are in real control of these institutions.

The curriculum perspective:

By the end of 2 years most students hardly remember the names of 50% of the subjects they get taught.

You wish the subjects you were taught after your summer internship were taught earlier, the internship would make so much more meaning if this were the case.

Being taught by the same theory and cases that have been taught since BC (Before Christ) era, at the end you get to know that every case scenario is different and you gotta start once again. Even that can be considered as learning but then few subject and professors are completely like gravity; they totally suck (courtesy Abhinav). Only few professors have an impact and surely a worthwhile impact.

The student’s perspective:

Students enter the top b-school with a lot of hope, dreamy eyes, high on success of cracking the entry level barrier, everyone around them in the society looking upto them as heroes. Soon they realise that however tough the entry may be, the next two years and finally passing out from the instituion is a much tougher game.

Everyone enters a top b-school with a great level of pride. But only a few remain with the same level of pride when they move out.

Fear, insecurity, compulsions rule your instincts and decision for the next two years. Students get conditioned to be perfect part of systems rather than create systems of their own.

People who leave jobs of 6 lacs and spend two valueable years of their life at a b-school get so insecure about a 10 lac job like it’s their purpose in life to get that job and they look to go into depression if such an opportunity seems to get distant.

So finally what can students extract out of a b-school?

· Consider yourself lucky if you can make some very good friends for life, because b-school is not an ideal college atmosphere. With so much hatred and negetivity around only few lucky people get good friends.

· Study enough to be at par in most subjects and pursue those subjects that interest you passionately apart from the regular course curriculum. Talk to professors because they can give you learning in 10 minutes which it would have taken them 10 years of experience to learn themselves.

· A b-school is a treasure vault of network and contacts. Make use of it.

· Find a reason for being in a b-school apart from academics and placements. Otherwise life can really be hell.

· Initiatives in student activities: There is a direct level of difference in the personality, attitude, mindset of those who participate or are incharge of things and events and the rest of the crowd

· Social work: My personal experience says it can be one of the best things you can do to yourself. Engage in a cause. Helps you throughout your life. Can even get you a job (ask Prajnan). It was my reason for existence and my way of leaving a mark in a top b-school. I learnt so much more in this process rather than classes and projects. Value for a lifetime.

· Enjoy the non 9-6 job routine, because most people might be doing that for the rest of their lives. Enjoy the crazy night life and schedules and make it a memorable two years of being a student again.

· Make a mark. Make you presence felt. Try going out of the b-school with more pride than with what you entered this place.

All the best J