Interesting times indeed...

The old Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times" has taken a brand new meaning for those in b-school especially the ones in India.
The fallout of the economic crisis, how it has affected the world and India is as interesting as macro-economics and finance theory can ever get. Figuring out how we got into the mess we are in and how can we get out of it and the efforts going on worldwide are lessons that teach better than any classroom lecture.

As I've written previously IIMA started a course on Business Ethics this year and what better way to put ethics in business into perspective than the Satyam fracas. Markets crashing, commodity prices jumping everywhere, people bungling...interesting times indeed.

Election fever

So Barack Obama has been elected and the LS elections are near...WIMWI is in the grip of its very own election fever. Elections for posts in the Students' Affairs Council are even nearer.
PGP-1s vote for their SAC this Monday. Campaigning was in full flow till 11:59:59 pm 14th Jan.
Now, no more 'pitching'...what was nice was that there never was any 'bitching'.

The cultural differences between the 3 institutions I have attended so far:
1) KJSCE: The Gen Secy and the rest of the SAC was selected by the faculty. You can imagine what might have followed, though I think our SAC did really well.

2) IISc: Will have its own elections soon. Regional biases, some campaigning bordering on intimidation and definitely tarring the other candidates.

3) IIMA: Clean, well-spelt out timings and guidelines for the campaigning. Ppl campaigning without bad-mouthing others, just the way 'ideal' elections ought to be carried out.

Recently, my sleep timings have receded into the early hours of the morning, though not as much as Tamba's (he sleeps at 6 am or later...making me wonder why he sleeps at all??).
Interesting effect WIMWI has.
Have a couple of ideas for blogs ...so stay tuned.

Fooled by Randomness

While there is a great deal of care taken in WIMWI regarding the grading procedure (understandable given the extent of importance acads and your CGPA carry) there still exists some amount of randomness in it.
Exams are graded in quite a random way sometimes, you write something thinking that is the answer only to be told something 'more' was expected. If you say that the question does not ask for that analysis, you are told that is the way the professor wants it.
Assignments are declared to be presentations and written reports are demanded with unbelievably tight deadlines. Component weightages are changed and flexed in a way that to the naked student eye seem arbitrary.

I take this in my stride saying this is another way of training us for the big, bad world out there which has no intention of being fair. WIMWI has found a way to fool us by randomness.

The beginning of the end

Back from a hectic 7 day vacation, the grind begins from tomorrow.
9 subjects, WAC is back and its back with a vengeance.
Fin 2, Marketing 2, OM 2...they are all here and they are bigger and badder.
The last term for the seniors, Chaos, Sangharsh ( the IIMA-IIMB sports meet) ... lots happening around me.
Strangely, it feels nice to be around the campus and in my room.
As a senior said today, "This is the last lap." And I hope to make it count for all it can.