The journey comes to an end

The journey to Planet-E and back: A walk down memory lane

A series of blogs about my alma mater - Amrita School of Business(ASB) located in the beautiful village of Ettimadai which we Amritians fondly call ‘Planet-E’ and the happenings in the eventful two years of my life there.

The last one in the series.

The journey comes to an end

The day is October 11, 2013. As I pack my bags and get ready for my journey to Ettimadai for the convocation of our batch, my mind went back to that day two years back when I was getting ready to go to my college for the very first time. It was hard to believe that two years had passed since that day and I had gone from being a student of ASB to an alumni of ASB.

All throughout my journey from Cochin to Ettimadai, I kept thinking about my college, trying to recollect those golden memories of the time that I spent there. I remembered that first day in college. I remembered that first day in class, when I was afraid to even step into the class. It all seemed like yesterday. I remembered the classes in CR1, CR2, CR3, CR4, CR5, ECR and the SAPG sessions by Udhayakumar Sir. I could not help but laugh when I thought about those sessions when me and Dimple (fellow last bencher) used to struggle to stay awake and wait for the session to get over to rush to the canteen to get tea. ECR being an air-conditioned room, we really did have a tough time staying awake during sessions in ECR, the only exceptions were when Colloquia Talkies was going on, SBM/IMC classes, and yes the most dreaded "Marketing Summer Project" presentations.

I thought about all the group projects and assignments that we did, especially the Marketing Research project, the outings to city for the projects (with a hidden agenda of having food from outside), the project presentations, and the quarrels within the group. I remebered the trimester exams and me crying after every exam saying it was difficult and my friends (Dimple most of the time) trying to console me. 

The memories of the festivities in the campus were also vivid in my mind. I remember participating in the Gokulashtami procession, winning the Bhajan competition and yes wearing a saree for the first time in my life. I remember 'Utsav', the events in SKH, those early morning Badminton games and the 'Merciless Massais' winning 'Utsav-2012'. I remember lighting lamps in the lawn and bursting crackers during Diwali, the musical chair and floral carpet during Onam, the DJ nights in the lawn and the flash mobs. I remember Kalakruthi and how SKH used to come alive during it.

I remembered 'Pragati' and the conference on Sustainable Development and how it bought out the best in us. I thought about the placement season - the joys and disappointments that it bought and how we supported each other through it all. I thought about my angelic professors (who were more of our friends than teachers) who were there with us through all our highs and lows guiding us. I thought about the smiling faces that greeted us when we used to go to the office room. I thought about the dignitaries we interacted with during the Colloquia sessions.

I remembered my days in A-409 Gargi Bhavanam - the breathtakingly beautiful view of the Western Ghats that greeted us every morning when we stepped out of our rooms, the mess food, the announcements in the hostel that resembled railway announcements, the evening discussions over a cup of coffee, crowding around the night canteen, the midnight birthday celebrations, those sleepless nights during exam time, and the most important of it all, those 14 angels who not even for a moment made me realize that I was away from home. 

It hurt most when I thought about the last day in college - the farewell speeches, the batch photo session at the roof top, DG Sir clicking away with his camera, as the Ettimadai sky started turning dark. It was as if a curtain was falling on one of the most wonderful chapters of our lives.  

I was lost in my thoughts, when my bus stopped in front of the large hoarding of our university at Ettimadai. I was back in college after six months, though it seemed like an eternity to me. I had missed my college very badly. It felt good to be back in the campus, to be reunited with my friends and teachers, to once again take those long walks around the campus. I could see smiling faces everywhere; two years of our hard work and determination had finally paid off. We were all ecstatic about finally becoming 'Post Graduates'. 

But the moments of ecstasy were followed by agony, when after the ceremony, everyone started saying their 'Goodbye's and 'We will keep in touch's and started leaving. If that feeling on that last day in college was bad, this was worse.  Back then, we knew that we had a chance to meet during the convocation. This time around we were not sure of when we would get a chance for a reunion like the one that we just had. SKH which was bustling with students before the ceremony, now looked deserted. 

With a heavy heart we bid adieu to our campus, to Planet-E, and to all the things that we had come to love about it over the last two years. So that is how my story ends, well this is not my story alone, this could be the story of an ASBian. We may have left the college, but the college will never leave us. As I made my way back to home in the Banglore-Ernakulam Inter City Express, I kept my eyes glued to the window to get a glimpse of our campus for one last time. The very first time I had seen the campus was while travelling in a similar train. As the train went past Ettimadai, I realized the journey had ended, at the place where it had all started. 

Pragati

The journey to Planet-E and back: A walk down memory lane

A series of blogs about my alma mater - Amrita School of Business(ASB) located in the beautiful village of Ettimadai which we Amritians fondly call ‘Planet-E’ and the happenings in the eventful two years of my life there. Dedicated to all Amritians.

Pragati

There are two phases in the life of an ASBian – one is before ‘Pragati’ and the other is after ‘Pragati’. It is one name that brings back lot of fond memories to every ASBian. When I look back at my college days I always wonder at the transformation that the two day long national level B-fest that we organized, brought in our lives.

The initial days in college were rife with fun and celebrations – the festive spirit of ‘Utsav’ and the colors of ‘Gokulashtami’ and we enjoyed ourselves, but before we knew it we were entrusted with the task of organizing ‘Pragati’. It was not going to be an easy task. We knew it. But we also knew that through meticulous planning and hard work we could make ‘Pragati’ a huge success and complete the task that our seniors and the college management had entrusted us with. With a strong core committee spearheading all activities and the six forums – Fortune, Gen-M, Ozone, Relations, Biz-IT, and Jagrati trying to outdo each other in the business games and promotions, we were sure that we would be able to make ‘Pragati 2012’ the best one ever in the history of ASB. 

‘Pragati’ brought out some of the most creative ideas in our minds, be it ideas for the business games or be it promotions for the forums, there was a lot of creativity at work. We kept aside all our differences and started working as a team to achieve the one goal that had our minds preoccupied – making ‘Pragati 2012’ a success. It was a time when the whole of ASB united as one and every single person involved, right from the employee at the university workshop to the top management of the University, made a difference. 

And then the D-day came. Students from various MBA colleges had arrived at our campus for participating in ‘Pragati’. Our major task had been accomplished. As the registrations poured in we were sure of one thing, that we were about to make history with participation at an all-time high. And yes we did; we made it the best one ever in the history of ASB. 

I always feel that ‘Pragati’ had changed us even without us realizing it. With ‘Pragati’, we made that transition from students to managers waiting in the wings. I remember our Professor Kulkarni Sir mention during one of his lectures that he saw a remarkable change in us during 'Pragati' time. Organizing 'Pragati' made us more bold, assertive and confident about ourselves and our capabilities. Life since ‘Pragati’ has never been the same again.

Tuesdays with Morrie

Teachers share a very special place in my life. Every teacher I have known has been able to create a profound impact in my life. However there is one teacher whom I have not met, whose class I have not attended, but who still has made the greatest impact of them all in my life – Professor Morrie Schwartz. It is novelist Mitch Albom who introduced me to the world of Morrie through his book Tuesdays with Morrie.

The book is a deeply moving and touching account of the relationship between Mitch and his favorite teacher Morrie. This real life story talks about how Morrie explains to Mitch the greatest lessons in life even as he is battling a terminal illness.

The story begins at a graduation ceremony at Brandeis University, Massachusetts where Morrie teaches Social Psychology. Mitch Albom was graduating from college. Mitch promises his favorite professor Morrie that he will stay in touch even after leaving the University. But Mitch does not keep his promise. He gets so entwined with his promising career as a sports columnist that he totally loses touch with his teacher. It was not until Mitch came to know that his teacher was dying that he realized that he had been so wrong. Mitch visits Morrie soon after he hears about his illness. Little did Mitch know that it was just the beginning of a series of visits that were to change his life forever.

Mitch Albom presents his readers with the profound wisdom imparted to him by Morrie during his last days through Tuesdays with Morrie. The book beautifully captures the conversations that Morrie has with Mitch about the simple things that make life worth living. Morrie talks about life, death, family, money, forgiveness and he talks about it all from his experience. 

Tuesdays with Morrie is full of memorable, heart-warming moments that often leave the reader teary-eyed. The graduation ceremony where Morrie says “Mitch, you are one of the good ones”, the living funeral that Morrie’s dear ones organize for him, and the visit when Morrie talks about forgiveness are the most memorable and stay etched in most readers’ minds. Equally memorable is the quote "Love each other or die" that Morrie often quotes.

The author says ‘We all need teachers in our lives’. For the author it was Morrie. Mitch like most of the people whom he knew was in search of the meaning of life; he wanted clarity about what was important in life. Morrie gave him that clarity. Like Mitch most of us are in need of someone to guide us, to show us the right direction in life. We can find that mentor, that teacher in Professor Morrie Schwartz of Tuesdays with Morrie. 

The book was a New York Times best seller and won the author Mitch Albom great critical acclaim. It was also made into an award-winning TV movie. 

Tuesdays with Morrie lets the reader into the final class of the angelic teacher that was Morrie – A class on life. The teacher is waiting, are you ready to enroll in this class of a lifetime?  

Utsav 2011

The journey to Planet-E and back: A walk down memory lane

A series of blogs about my alma mater - Amrita School of Business(ASB) located in the beautiful village of Ettimadai which we Amritians fondly call ‘Planet-E’ and the happenings in the eventful two years of my life there. Dedicated to all Amritians.

Utsav 2011

During my school days, I always thought of extra-curricular activities as a means to stay away from class without losing your attendance. During my engineering college days, even an excuse like that was not needed to bunk class as we hardly had any class and attendance (read ‘proxy’) was not a concern at all (Studying in a government engineering college had its own advantages!).  I always used to find some excuse to stay away from all these activities during my school and engineering college days. It is only when I started working that I realized that I had made a mistake by letting go of the many opportunities that I had to take part in such activities. When I joined ASB, I was determined that I would never make that mistake again. 

The first major event that happened in our college was ‘Utsav’ – our annual college arts and sports festival where the students are divided into four houses and the house with the maximum points walks away with the coveted ‘Utsav trophy’. The theme for ‘Utsav 2011’ was ‘Royal fiesta’ though it was more like a ‘Royal battle’ towards the end, with the houses battling it out for the trophy. 

I had made up my mind that I would participate only for those competitions that I was good at. But fate had some other plans for me. I was elected as one of the two captains of my house and there was an unwritten rule in ‘Utsav’ that if an event did not have any participants from a house, the captain had to take part in it, whether you were good at it or not. And that is how I ended up doing things that I would never have imagined doing, not even in my wildest dreams. Dancing on stage, playing table tennis, singing on stage with a karaoke, poetry writing – I did it all. One of the best things about ‘Utsav’ is that it did not matter whether you were good or bad, whether you won or lost; the only thing that mattered was whether you at least tried. 

‘Utsav’ was a very taxing time for both students as well as faculty; students trying hard to juggle academics and events, and teachers complaining that studies take a back seat during it. With events happening early in the morning, evening and late in the night, many of us spent sleepless nights during those days. I remember, I once fell asleep during Achath Sir’s statistics class during ‘Utsav’ time. 

In the end ‘Utsav’ was not just about fun and games, it was a great learning experience for most of us. I learnt my first lessons in Human Resource management during ‘Utsav’. I realized that managing people was not an easy job after all. ‘Utsav’ also taught me a great deal about team work and negotiation too. I remember our professor Shri Krishnan Sir say that events like ‘Utsav’ are not “extra-curricular”, they are in fact very much a part of the curriculum. Some of the best managerial lessons we learnt were during these events. 

Today as I sit in my office engrossed in work, I occasionally think about those days spent in Ettimadai especially the ‘Utsav’ days.  True to its name ‘Utsav’ was a celebration that gave us some of the most memorable moments of our college life. I have no regrets now as I made up for all that I could not do in my school and engineering college in ASB. Life does give you a second chance, sometimes.

And then the ice breaks

The journey to Planet-E and back: A walk down memory lane

A series of blogs about my alma mater - Amrita School of Business(ASB) located in the beautiful village of Ettimadai which we Amritians fondly call ‘Planet-E’ and the happenings in the eventful two years of my life there. Dedicated to all Amritians.

And then the ice breaks

The classes had begun and we were in the middle of a gamut of assignments, when our seniors returned to the college after a two month long summer internship. The very first time we all got together was during a colloquia session in SKH. Most of them came across as very reserved and serious. “All of them have loads of attitude”, “Not even one person is smiling at us”, we were very quick to judge our seniors and make comments about them. However that was how we felt about them before the Fresher’s Day – a day much awaited by the seniors (and much dreaded by the juniors).

Like most of the important events in ASB, this one too was held in SKH. The serious faces and reservations were long gone; the seniors we saw on that day in SKH were a total contrast to what we had imagined them to be. They were all smiles and friendly to us, the reason for which became evident only after the event started. Yes, it was an official ragging session, but in a fun way. We were made to do all sort of crazy things – from doing a ramp walk in a saree to mimicking animal sounds to proposing seniors, we did it all.

On that day we also came to know that our batch had a lot of good dancers and singers too. I can never forget Dimple dancing to “Munni badnam hui” (it almost became synonymous with Dimple after that dance) or Vaisakh and Bipin singing. We also realized that day that, ultimately it did not matter whether you knew how to dance or sing, what mattered was the confidence to do whatever the situation demanded, without any fear or inhibition.

The day was meant to be an ice-breaker between the seniors and juniors, and an ice-breaker it was. Very soon we all became good friends. In the days following the fresher’s day party, we had the selection rounds for the various forums in our college. It felt like an extended ragging session by the seniors, but we enjoyed it, and so did our seniors.

That was the beginning of a very colorful period of our college life. I felt that the fresher’s party was crazy, little did I know that more craziness and madness was to follow, as the biggest sports and  cultural extravaganza of ASB – ‘Utsav’ was about to begin soon. I belonged to the category of students who believed that college life was all about studies and immersing oneself in textbooks. My friends from my engineering college days would vouch for it. Well, all of that was about to change, very soon.

My first hero

They say that a child’s first hero is its father. I cannot agree more to that. As a child I had always idolized my father. I always tried to do things the way he did, especially the way he wrote. He had a habit of keeping a diary and I used to read it often. His handwriting was something that I had always admired. After many efforts of trying to write the way he did, I must say I came close. I used to get really excited when my mother used to say that my handwriting resembles his.

To me, my father is an epitome of honesty and sincerity. I always try to be as dedicated to my work, as my father was to his. Being the typical Capricorn that he is, everything he does has a touch of perfection. I like his perfectionism and obsession with orderliness. I guess it is because I myself am a Capricorn and to an extent share many of his personality traits, including his perfectionism. I sometimes feel that my mother deserves special appreciation for tolerating two Capricorns like us at the same time!

Simple, humble, kind and loveable, my father is my hero; he has always been and will always be. I continue to idolize him the way I used to when I was a child and every time someone tells me that I am just like my father, I feel proud and in my mind thank God for it. Today morning I wished my father saying “Happy Father’s day, Accha” and in my mind I said “Thank you Dad. I am what I am today because of you. I love you.”

Class Room 1 (CR1)

The journey to Planet-E and back: A walk down memory lane

A series of blogs about my alma mater - Amrita School of Business(ASB) located in the beautiful village of Ettimadai which we Amritians fondly call ‘Planet-E’ and the happenings in the eventful two years of my life there. Dedicated to all Amritians.

Class Room 1 (CR1) 

It had been three years since I last entered a class room. I felt like it had been ages since I left my engineering college. I was thrilled at the prospect of being a college student after a long time, but I was nervous too. When I joined Wipro after completing my graduation, I remember we had a training called ‘College to Corporate’. It was to help fresh college graduates get accustomed to the corporate culture at Wipro. During the initial days at Ettimadai, I felt like I very badly needed a ‘Corporate to College’ training to get back to being a student again.

I realized very early on that the transition from Corporate to College life was not going to be as easy as I thought it was. Long working hours, conference calls, deliverables, appraisals, work pressure, and deadlines – Corporate work was too taxing. The atmosphere in Ettimadai was entirely different. It was calm and peaceful. All was well until the classes began.

Firstly, I was struggling to stay awake in the class, especially during the first session in the morning. Many a time, I even dozed off in the class during the Morning Prayer before the first session! After the initial struggle however, I found a way around it. The solution was none other than the most popular item served in the ASB canteen – ‘Tea’. Never before in my life had I enjoyed and appreciated tea as much as I did during the two years that I was at Ettimadai.

That problem was far from solved, when I met my arch nemesis – ‘Financial Accounting’ (FA). Now that is one subject that still sends shivers down my spine each time I think about it. Finance was never (and I guess will never be) my favorite subject. My first encounter with finance did not go very well. Despite the efforts put in by our Financial Accounting Professor and my ‘finance nerd’ friends , I was struggling to make sense out of the finance concepts I was being taught. The mid-term exam for FA was a disaster; the end-term was even worse!

While FA was dreaded by most of us, there was one subject that almost all of us liked – ‘Micro Economics’ taken by Bala Sir. That was one session which all of us looked forward to. One can never forget Bala Sir’s inimitable style of saying ‘’People are rational’’ and also the various ET reading sessions in Sir’s class. I totally disliked reading ET back then, however I developed a liking for ET towards the end of the course.   

And that’s how classes began in ‘CR1’ (short for ‘Class Room 1’), a little bit of struggle in the beginning, but all went well afterwards. CR1 was our class room for the entire first year at Ettimadai. Though the initial days in CR1 were terrifying, thanks to FA, I have very fond memories of the time that I spent in CR1. Lots of learning, lots of discussions, lots of presentations, and not to forget, lots of exams happened in CR1. How I wish I could just go back in time and sit on one of those benches in CR1 and listen to those lectures once again!