Just in Time for the Safe House

We often study a famous concept by Toyota by the name Just in Time(JIT) in our operations & supply chain related subjects. Today we practiced it.
At around 10:40PM, we had just finished watching some new movie trailers. We were discussing about watching a movie on Saturday, the next day, but certain other commitments suddenly gave us an idea. We could rush to catch the 11:10PM movie at a movie hall at least 30 minutes away. That meant that we could be cutting it to close if we wanted to get the 11:10PM movie at PVR Mulund, Piramal Mall. My only condition, the movie had to be “Safe House”. The three of us quickly changed clothes and started running out of our rooms, ran down the flight of stairs (from the 6th floor), taking 3-4 steps at a time. One of my friends, being a heavy set person, even went faster than we could have ever imagined when he took 2 steps at a time.
We got an autorikshaw at about 10:50PM. We told the autorikshaw driver that we Would pay him extra if he drove fast enough to help us reach the movie hall in time. As luck played along, all the traffic signals we encountered turned green (well except for just 1). At the only red light we encountered I threatened the guy by saying that I won’t pay him extra if he didn’t jump it. Reluctantly he did. Not my proudest actions, but in the heat of the moment, we did these things. As the auto came to a screeching halt, one of my friends stayed back in the auto to settle the fare, while me and my room-mate ran across the moderately crowded mall, pulling a lot of attention to ourselves, even dodging some kids playing, to reach the movie ticket counter which had a few people before us. I hate queues, and hated the queues even more today, because it was 11:10PM already. We quickly got the tickets, ran across through the security checks, and rushed to reach the movie hall just as the first scene started rolling.
The movie was worth the rush.

A Big(z) exposure to marketing through Biziga

Having strong traits of supply chain & operations in our curriculum, our institute has had very few workshops on marketing. So when we were informed of the one & a half day marketing workshop, were quite keenly looking forward to it. However I was unfortunate to have missed out the first day of the 2-day workshop that was conducted by Mr Ashish Kumar, but the second day was no a disappointment I should add.




This 26 year old IIM-Indore graduate who ventured into his own business (Biziga) of making training software, showed us how to interpret data, relate different charts, show us how to mildly predict one of the most unpredictable patterns - the consumer behavior. From what I gather, there are various different forms to the simulation software, but we were mainly exposed to the marketing aspects. The venture that Mr Ashish started along with 3 other partners has been operating for about 2.5 years now and happens to be one of the first simulation training software to enter the Indian Market. Currently, the market is having a few other MNC players who have entered, but pricing wise, Biziga probably turns out as a more viable option for many.




Coming back to the workshop, it is true that one can never predict another human’s actions, let alone a group of individuals. And that’s exactly what the simulation software did. It showed the variations in the consumer patterns, it showed how consumers respond to a stimulus and often the time factors involved. For certain stimuli, the consumer takes longer to respond, while for others he is quicker. All these factors create a lot of market dynamics when one is doing business in a highly competitive market.


That’s exactly how Mr Ashish ended up holding the workshop. He put about 10 teams in the simulation competing against each other with a lot of variations that exist in the real world.













During the course of the workshop, we were given indicators on how to interpret our results from the previous rounds (categorized under quarterly results in the business cycles) and then develop strategies for the following quarters. Within duration of about 60 minutes, we were to develop the strategies and beat the competing teams in terms of market capitalization, profits, revenue, share value etc.












The intense session was a small window to how marketing strategies need be developed considering the various performance results. Despite reading about marketing concepts, consumer behaviors and few other marketing areas, we as students of NITIE have not been exposed to these software earlier. A session of software is a must for all marketing “enthus”. We were often reminded that the consumer behavior is too difficult to accurately predict despite extensive market research information at one’s disposal, but all in all, it was a good experience as a marketing manager for a day of a fantasy company.
For some of the images from the workshop, follow LINK
For more info on the company and the simulation software, checkout www.biziga.com.

How we landed a restaurant owner in his own soup.

It all started with some of my friend and I discussing some project and at 3:15AM I suggested that we go down for a bite at the night mess. Two of my friends (Anshul and Sumar) quickly picked up some cash and got ready, but when we got to the mess, we got to know that the mess/canteen had run out of all eatables by that hour. We got the idea to explore open place outside the campus to grab a bite at 3:30AM, and the one suggestion that came from the security guard at the gate was Medu Mess near IIT. An auto driver told us that it would be open in the next few minutes, and so began our trip to the Famous Medu Mess. The one we were told about by our seniors. The one which is a legend since it is the only source of decent food at such odd hours of the day.
Little did we realize that it is located in some interior corner of some locality. Initially we were under the impression that the auto driver is taking us to some secluded location and we would be ripped off, since there was no source of light to indicate the existence of a mess or any sort of eating place. He took us through routes that I had no clue about. Finally we stopped in front of a few shops with their shutters closed and a lamp post with barely enough illumination. When we asked the auto drive where the mess was, he pointed to a dark alley narrowly lying between two adjacent shops. Somewhere inside that alley was the Medu mess. At the first glance you would easily miss the alley, but then the auto driver seemed to know what he was talking about. Personally, I was not too sure about his intentions. When we got to know that the mess would be opened at around 4AM, we had to kill another 20 minutes. We tried to chat about the weird stuff that we saw at 3:40AM when almost whole city is sleeping. We saw poultry that was just brought in for a butcher's shop , the stray cat that took a liking for Anshul, the huge houses in the neighborhood and the distant cars that were visible. Anshul even shot a video of how the chicken was offloaded from the truck swearing about how we sell our souls when we eat non-vegetarian food referring to the cruel treatment of the poultry. It was Sumar who reminded Anshul that he himself was a hard core non-vegetarian and wouldn’t even give all this a second thought the next morning.
A little while later a few of our other colleges also turned up to grab a bite. These colleagues who are from South India told us about the awesome South Indian food that the Medu mess serves. Within the few min after that, a police patrol jeep drove down the road narrow street towards us. We were all under the assumption that this was just another routine patrol and nothing really to be concerned about, but when the jeep stopped its engine right in front of the mess, we were confused. One of the police men started asking my south Indian friends some questions, while Anshul, Sumar and I were standing a bit away from the jeep. Unfortunately my curiosity got the better of me and I poked my head closer to the place of conversation. My colleagues called out to me and asked me to help in the translation considering that language barrier between the cop and my colleagues from south India. My colleague seemed uncomfortable and I thought to myself, "is this cop business really happening?" I wasn’t expecting all this to be the result of a bunch of hungry students in the middle of the night/dawn. I walked up to them as casually as possible, but in my head I said, “Oh, shit, why did I have to feel hungry at such odd hours? And even if I did feel hungry, why did I come over the most secluded streets. Little did I realize that at 4AM, virtually all streets were secluded", so my thought process was obviously overwhelmed by the sequence of events this night. When I walked up to my colleagues to ask if there was any trouble, I was least expecting the conversation I was about to have. The cop seemed to be irritated or probably just wanted to show who the boss was. I had no doubt about that part for sure. He asked if anyone knew how to speak Hindi or Marathi and I told him I knew Hindi. He asked me what time I eat food. At first I was confused, I thought he was asking about some why we were there, so I told him that we were hungry and were “Studying” so wanted to grab a bite. A few more questions from him and my responses around our forthcoming exams seemed to convince him enough to get him off our back. The next thing we realize that the cops are beating on the door of the Medu mess and talking to the meek fellow who comes out. Poor chap who hadn’t even opened his shop for business got in trouble for operating at hours outside the permitted timing. The chap was taken inside the police jeep and had a “Conversation”. The auto drive gave us a hint to get back in the auto and keep our heads down. He said, “You guys won’t be getting anything to eat for quite a while from this place today, until the chap sorts out this matter of course”.
We obeyed the saviors of the moment and followed his lead. Within seconds we had hit the street to head back to the college campus. A little while later we crossed a police check post and Sumar noticed a policeman on a bike right behind us. He told us that this time we were in some serious trouble. But just then the bike zoomed past us and we took a breadth of air to our starved lungs. At 4:40AM when we landed back in the campus, we paid the auto drive 100 bucks and concluded that the night was quite an epic one. Not only did we shell out 100 bucks, dodged nosy cops, and sleepy like hell, we were back to square one, being hungry.


PS: pardon my typos or any other errors. at 5:30AM, I am a bit sleepy to notice how my english is structured.

Mandi Experience - Part 2

With the sumo sized goons behind us, we tried to figure out.our next destination. Andheri seemed like a place where we could have had some sales, so with our destination in mind, we were heading in that direction with a debat between me and Anshul on how we could.have settled scores with those goons. Of course our wishful thinking was interrupted with a realization that our normal lunch time is running out. My teammate's hunger pangs were becoming evident. At this time, we were not looking out for possible sales point, but for places to eat. I reminded my friend about the huge inventory of toys still left unsold in our bag and tried to.persuade to him to skip lunch, but I guess my friends growling stomach does not like to be put on a lower priority. Despite my request to complete our sales targets, his stomach voiced its opinions loud and clear. Finally we went to a restaurant in Saki Naka, spent about 15 minutes waiting for a waiter(I guess our black yellow uniform t-shirts did give us a peculiar look, but it was interesting) then we spent over 40 minutes waiting for food, and finally spent more on our food than we had earned. Spending more than my earning,hah!!! Thankgod it was just an assignments of a college, had it been real life, my financial planning would have taken a beating by now. Next thing you know, I am defaulting on my payments. Anyways, with our stomachs now full of Chinese cuisine, we tried to search for a spot to sell a bag full of toys as close as possible to our location. With a full stomach, our motivation to sleep took over the motivation to complete our assignment.
We were now staring out of the autorickshaw at people waiting at bus stops, or walking on streets, or even trying to hail a cab, judging them for prospective customers. After half hour, our sleep was replaced with desperation to rid our bag.
From what we had heard, some students had already sold all their products, and it was late in the afternoon we were running behind schedule. The situation had turned critical, and we were just getting started on our work. So from Saki Naka, our team rushed to Kanjurmarg. The place where we were told that was a strong hold of NITIE Mandi team. We asked our driver to rush to the point, and the next thing you know, we were praying for seats and safety gear in the back seats. I think I need to recommend the driver to a formula one team for his excellent driving skills. When I stepped out of the car, I checked if I had wet my pants, checked if I was stable enough to walk. Yeah, all was well. I had just turned back into a theist.
With the rest of the NITIE students in sight, my team mate and I regained some confidence. Some of them had more inventory of toys left in their bag. Yes!!!!! Finally more people like us. On top of that, we had a popular music channel crew covering our event. With a camera and a pretty lady by our side, some of us were able to get the attention of lot more people than we were able to do earlier. Unfortunately, I was not among the lucky ones to sell products on camera. With another destination in our mind, we headed for Marine drive to sell the bag full of goods. Seriously??? Whose idea was it to travel 35 km in Mumbai traffic? Enroute to Marine drive, we had to stop by our deserted college to pick up my laptop. Why pickup the laptop? To utilize our travel time to do our media assignment. Again, seriously, whose weird idea was it? At 5 PM, there was a race against time for selling some toys and also completing the assignment. Lesson learnt- it was a bad bad idea. The next 1.5 hours were spent traveling in a corner space on.a car with my fingers furiously typing the keyboard of the laptop. Thankfully the keyboard survived my trembling angry fingers.

The long journey cramped in the back seat of a tiny car, really got me a sore back, and then finally when we reached our destination, my team mate and I were desperately working on our laptops and making multiple frantic calls until all the power in our cell phones and laptops got drained. Only after we realized that the ships have sailed, and we missed boarding it, we gave up. The assignment that I had for the day was left incomplete. Remind me once again about the main lesson I am supposed to have learnt about time management. Oh yeah, an MBA student without proper time management definitely ends up with watering eyes, be it from strained vision or drained emotion. Trust me, you will find some of us crying their guts out after horrible weekends without sleep, or exam results that went south.

Coming back to Mandi objective, it was close to 8:30 PM in the evening, and we were at Marine Drive stepping out of the car. We realized that the weather was pleasant, so who would not want to support a noble cause and bring additional solace to themselves? We set out again to scout for prospective customers, and this time, we saw many of our colleagues dressed in similar black yellow T-shirts without anything in their hands. At this point of time, I was hoping that they would have kept their bag full of inventory at some safe spot. But unfortunately god is not that gracious. They recounted their experiences wherein they were able to sell almost all their inventory, within minutes of entering Marine Drive. With a bit of hope, when we tried to approach some people, they jumped upon seeing us and desperately begged us, not to bother them. It seemed that our colleagues had swept this area clean of all prospective customers. We were now branded as the scum, untouchable, to be kept away, to be looked down upon. Before we could say much, most people put up a grumpy face or a highly vocal language (censored here) to shoo us away.

It was a tough next 2 hours selling some of the inventory, and by the end of the 2 hours, we had given up any more hopes of selling. The only motivation to walk after a treacherous day was the journey back to my room, my bed, my precious sleep.

So if someone asked for Counting the Goods sold - don’t care. Money earned - Don’t care.

Ultimate result – slept for 7 hours straight, well -except when someone woke me up to remind me that I was almost sleeping on the floor.

Sales pitch, goons, running clueless and exhausted. In short Mandi

That was how I looked yesterday at about 1:30AM after trying my hand at something new. Selling like a salesman.
The event MANDI which is unique to NITIE requires every student to go out on the street and sell some toys or similar products. But before anyone gets the idea that we are being trained to be salespersons, please note that we don't get any monetary benefits out of it. All the money goes to an NGO for it's efforts to help the underprivileged. The motivation for us - hands on experience at understanding different people(read prospective customers or market study).

The day started with the speeches and the flagging off ceremony, with roughly thousand students from NITIE and a few other B-schools walking out of the campus ready to experiment and experience.
My team member and I set out towards a shopping complex not too far from our college campus. With our bag-pack full of products, we were accompanied by a lady from a media house who wanted to tag along some students to see how we fare at our task. Once we landed at this shopping complex, some of us spread out to find prospective customers while I was accompanying the lady from the media house. The first few minutes, I was trying to gauge the atmosphere around us. What are these people up to today? Are they busy? Are they leisurely shopping? Is this person looking grumpy? Is this one too arrogant? These were the questions running through my head at speeds unimaginable to even my mind, and I thought I was the one with wild ideas.

So when I attempted to approach someone, who didn’t bother to slow down one bit as I opened my mouth just to say "Good Morning" or a simple "Hi", I realized, “Hey, this is way tougher than I thought.”
So finally when I actually went to talk to someone about the toys and games in my hand and bag, there were a few people who politely declined saying they had already bought some toys from someone from the MANDI. Did I mention that we were all wearing the same uniform t-shirt of Mandi? This was my first proper reject.
I moved on thanking the old lady and approached someone else but wasn't too comfortable just walking up to a stranger again. Once more I reluctantly searched the crowd for a face that I can try to read, a person who might just seem patient enough to listen.
So the lady from the media house, who was accompanying me all the while encouraged me a bit, reassured that I will definitely convince the next person I approach. I guess my apprehensions were probably vivid on my face. She stepped away and out of earshot, telling me that I need to go in it alone.
I reluctantly tried again and approached a group of 4 to 5 girls who were probably leaving a store after making some purchase. I started a conversation with them talking about the NGO and the products I carry in my bag. They seemed reluctant at buying something from a salesperson at first but somehow I was able to get the conversation going based on some common associations with one of them who happened to be not only from my city, but my school too. I had finally met my first customers who were interested in some of the products I carried in my bag. I noticed the lady standing in the background raise her hand to give me a thumbs-up, a reassuring gesture. She had been right when she said that I would definitely get my customers soon.
I thanked the four ladies who bought a product despite their hesitations, and felt proud to have crossed the first hurdle. It felt GOOD!!! I walked up to the lady from the media house and thanked her for the support. By now, I knew she was not a reporter or a columnist, she was now a friend, atleast for the duration of the one day Mandi event.
After seeing her off quickly, my teammate and I went on to find our next customer around the same shopping complex, and while attempting to talk to someone outside a supermarket, a group of security guards started objecting to our presence. Despite our attempts to pacify them, it was clear that their aggression was not really going away until we were gone. We tried to tell them that we were students on a project and not really salespersons. We showed them our ID cards and the letters of permit we were carrying, but by now the matter was quite escalated. Step by step we got pushed farther away from the supermarket and reached the street, but that was not enough for the guards. They wanted us even gone from the street as if the street was also owned by the supermarket. It was then that we decided to hold ground. And then torrential arguments criss-crossed between us. Shouting at each other would be an understatement. Just then two people walked up to us to confirm if we were from NITIE. Quizzically we replied in affirmative and got to know that they were our alumni, who happened notice NITIE t-shirts and our ID cards. They took notice of the NITIE logo in the middle of a commotion and thought they should step in to see what the whole matter was all about. Suddenly my teammate and I found a new source of energy. Both of us got the support of our alumni while arguing with the guards. The alumni who initially had stepped in as mediators were now siding with us. I guess they understood that our attempts at posing as salespersons was just a one day educational experiment, and need not be taken too seriously by the over zealous security guards.
By now the guards had also got their reinforcements. A bunch of goons (I doubt if there would be any other word for these reinforcements) came with the objective to rid the property of the "disturbing elements". Yeah, that’s right, my friends and I were referred as the “disturbing element”. Seriously, who gave them that idea?? Within seconds our voices were restored to normal decibel levels. They informed us that the roughly one kilometer street on which we were holding ground, was actually a private property. Looking at the reinforcements, I was even willing to accept if the whole world is a private properly of someone. My teammate and I along with our alumni dispersed from the spot but since we were continuously being followed by the reinforcements, it would be apt to say, that we were being escorted off the property.
After that was a lot of running around in the hopes of finding a possible “Safe” market. At the end of the day, we had covered roughly 160KM without selling much. In between, we were swamped with additional responsibilities of keeping media houses informed about the updates from the event.
Did I succeed in selling the products in my bag? I will leave that part for my next blog post. It is a long story and my afternoon nap time on a pleasant Sunday is running out.

NITIE Groove

Today I think I can take a proper night sleep. The groove session that went on from 16th till the 19th of this month was just a wakeup call. This session, which was just a testing phase was more of a trailer to a movie. Short, crisp but still giving thrill.
The introduction session or the orientation as I would like to call it, made me (and I believe many others too) realize that there are miles to go before I (or we) sleep. And I was desperate to sleep.
16th June, Day one, after the document verifications, some friends and I went for X-Men. Funny, I was pretty sure thats NOT how a B-school experience is supposed to start. It was totally worth it. We were 3 or 4 people who had planned this, but the group became a mamothic 18 which went in 6 autorikshaws. The lady at the ticket counter for a few seconds was trying to comprehend if she heard our request for 18 tickets correctly. The icing on the cake, the movie was AWESOME. But hey, the story for this day is not over yet. The evening consisted of seniors telling us about NITIE and different things about the streams. And then came the all nighter problem. The assignment consisting of a case study, one of a kind that I had never worked on before. So my team(Pallavi, Depankar, Nishant & Abhijeet) and I worked till about 4AM, and tried to finish it .With a few hours sleep, we assembled the following morning for a tour of the campus. I doubt if more than half the people from the previous night’s assignment turned up. But then I can’t blame them, even I had seriously thought of skipping the tour(oh wait, I did part of it). The continuously on and off rain made the trip interesting, although a bit irritating later on.
And then another round of introductions, discussions and group tasks did the rounds post our breakfast. Though the whole thing was interesting, I was unable to comprehend why we were re-doing similar activites over and over again. (Until later on I realized that it helped me make friends with a lot of people. And trust me, in Mumbai or Delhi I say a lot of people, it really means a lot of people)
So by evening, post our dinner, we entered another round of Case study. This time, it was a finance based case study. And I must confess, it was equivalent to a bludgeon attack. It was like something knocked us down (metaphorically of course, but equally painful). With watering eyes I (and im sure many others) cursed those who brought upon us this wrath and fury. The whole thing gradually started feeling like a torture. What kind of sadist would force work like this on innocent lives like mine(too dramatic? Seniors, please read the whole thing before commenting!!!)
But hold on, just when it was all going to get better, it went further down the same road. Another round of activites in the morning, with running for Lunches in between and then a few guest lectures. One might have thought that, all will be well. (I remind Amir khan, that all izz not always well). The tight deadline continued on that day too. We were again under a weird illogical timeline. But this time, we got an assignment of a subject for which I have always carried an aversion. Things could not have got worse. Or so I thought. But then, the assignment seemed interesting. Hey, did I write the last few words correct??? I have always been pretty sure that marketing was not my cup of tea. So what made me feel interested in an assignment that was pretty much marketing? A domain that I have mostly been averse to. May be because the assignment was related to understanding women (something related to women’s clothing line). Yes, I am pretty sure that was it, the WOMAN factor. No wonder I felt so revived. No more feeling of sleep deprivation. We didn’t even feel like going to bed at about 5AM . The next morning, I got up, a bit with some enthusiasm, hoping that the work I put in my supposedly averse subject might prove to be a decent piece of work. By afternoon, the results were announced, and I didn’t make it. I thought, dude what the hell?? I decided that my decision to stay away from marketing stood ground. I thought, “My work was way better than that of those who won”. And then someone pointed out my faults, in my work and in my attitude. Yes, I am human and prone to poor judgment at times. But now I look back at the last 3-4 days and at the whole thing with a big picture, and don’t regret a task or a thing I did. I liked(or let me just say, didn’t dislike) almost everything. I am once again open to marketing. But hold on, I need to think again. Oh man, this is just confusing!!!!!
The final closure of the whole thing came with a pretty enjoyable welcome note and a souvenir (the one that was Richa’s initiative with finger prints and palm prints). Yes, I don’t regret one thing over the last few days. Thanks to a bunch of people such as Varun, Noor, Utsav, Mac, Ravi, Harish, Richa, Nupoor and many more. I really am sorry for forgetting some names, but it is too late in the night to wake someone up to confirm. So I close this post as my first from NITIE. My place for the next 2 years. Someone, please wake me up in the morning for my first class. Don’t think I wanna be late considering that it is now 2AM.

last day at work

I cursed it a lot, I got mad at it so much, but in the end, it is something I will always remember. I talk of my first company, where I almost spent 3 years. Learnt a lot, and made friends. Though I am not being sentimental about it, I am unable to find a better word than nostalgic.
I left behind some friends and then there were those for whom I said "good riddance"

anyway, my good bye email went something like this:

I have been trying to capture the last 3 years in last 2 days… it’s not that easy.
You know how in the movies, someone has sudden flash backs about important events and then there is a realization? No, I am NOT having that. Though I am trying to.
What I have learnt in my first job is something I doubt I will ever forget. Maybe I might learn a few skills, but nothing to the magnitude of the learning in last 3 years. Being the first job, the first company, I didn’t have trouble getting familiar with everything new around, with tones of helpful people.
20th June 2008 onwards, I started learning how to work with diverse teams. When we were younger, in college or in school, we used to team up with friends for our project works. In your work life, things are a bit different. You work with people who know about the project or the assignment. You consult even people you may not like. But at the end of the day, you don’t worry about working with friends, but working with people just because they have a “skill set”. If during the process you make friends with them, Great, but either way, you work for getting the work done. That’s what I was lucky with. I worked with people I didn’t know. Met them because of their skill set, and over the duration, made friends. Not only that, I made friends with people who I commuted with. Made friends with people who I met through other friends and BLAH BLAH BLAH …But when I look back, I think I liked most of it.

And I don’t think I can forget the help I got from my team, the Patient handling team. Thanks , , and .

Though I bit adieu, I will make sure I keep in touch with friends from here, who I am sure I will cross path with soon. It’s a small world out there.

B-school old-age home?

I am writing on my blog after god knows how long (didn’t even feel like checking the date of my last post).
And well, I confess, my post today is totally inspired after reading this article that reminded me of something that I have been fearing for so long.( Link to the “INSPIRING” story: http://siddheshagashe.blogspot.com/2011/05/tragedy-of-being-25-in-indian-bschool.html)
Talking about my Life in a B-school? Huh? What? I barely could study and get through my engineering what am I gonna be doing in a B-school? And to top it off, I even hate reading the documents in my projects at the office, even the ones that are barely 3 pages long. What happens when i have t pull the all nighters like what the seniors have told us? Why the hell did I even bother to chase a CAT 3 scary times? Probably cause the technical line is not for me. And studying abroad is another story altogether. Hell I don’t even know what specialization I will be opting for when I go into the 2nd year of the college.
Did I get too comfy in my job? No, not really, cause I’m sure I worked hard to balance a decent performance at work and a not too bad performance with the felines (read CAT,XAT etc). but then, it’s a whole new and different world out there. 2AM being assignment submission deadlines, books, reading , journals reading, and on top of that, you gotta seriously think about your future. OH Man, im pretty much wetting my pants thinking of the life, in the b-school.
Destiny has a weird thing going on for me, and I guess for the matter pretty much every other person. Last season I had worked very hard. Used to get up at 3:30 or 4 in the morning, study for a few hours, occasionally go to the gym or for a round of jogging before I left for work where a a decent project awaited me at the office. With confidence filled attitude, I was pretty sure to at least get an IIM-K if nothing else, I didn’t even bother to apply to “PETTY” colleges like LBS or any of the Symbiosis and guess what? A dismal 93 %ile in CAT last year and a borderline 97%ile in XAT, I realized that the only call I have is from XIM-B. With a weird sense of depression and confusion, I went on my onsite trip to the USA keeping track of the waitlist movement everyday at XIM-B, and finally at the time of closure of the admission at XIM-B, I was at waitlist 3. I can truly say that Pagalguy made me Pagal. Then I told myself, “Dude, these stupid B-schools don’t deserve you”, and I mentally prepared to write GMAT, go abroad, and maybe look at a financially secure future probably in USA/Australia/Singapore or what not, but not India. I guess that was my anger speaking. I came back to India and talked to many people and finally thought of writing CAT for the 3rd and last time in my life. I was prepared to give it one last shot before I gear up for the main thing lying in front of me. The idea was to prove to myself that India B-schools are more like factories churning out robots. With competition oozing from every sweat drop, there is no scope of breathing; we would become robots in flesh.
So I joined a crash course at TIME, and started preparing giving a half heartedly effort ( compared to my previous season of hard work). I got percentiles in the range of 40 to 98 in the mock tests. So I told myself, “There is no shame in applying to decent places like LBS, Symbiosis, NIRMA this year. All I need to do is forget my arrogance that I was possessed by last year, and I will surely join some B-school this year. “ And the cycle of preparing started all over again. So I filled roughly 25-30 application forms to colleges that I had totally ignored last year, spend roughly a total of Rs 90,000 on my TIME classes, and B-school applications and another 25,000 on travel expenses to interviews to colleges that don’t bother to setup interview centers in other cities. All this because I was pretty sure that I would not get above 92% ile in any entrance exam that I write for any B-school.
As I mentioned, destiny has a funny thing going on for me. I surprisingly got decent percentiles in all my exams. Well I say decent cause I was not expecting as much in any of the exams, and with my percentiles, the only calls I didn’t get were from the older IIMs. So I was pretty happy for a few weeks, getting calls, going for interviews to almost all the colleges that I had applied. To top it off, I was among those who had 2.5+ years of work experience, so if any B-school had some marks for that, I would at least ace that section.
And then the results started pouring out. Each time, my breathing slowed down as I tried to open pages for results, I logged on each website, and each time I realized that I have a either cleared the interviews or have a waitlist close to clearing(except for MDI where I don’t know if the WL will get cleared).
I had resigned from my job since I had secured admission in B-schools such as XLRI(HRM), NITIE, and am waitlisted at MDI. I think all these are decent B-schools and hope that there will be a few more people who would be roughly as old as me. I will turn 25 this year, and by the time I am out of a b-school, I will be almost 27. My fellow blogger who inspired me to write this blog today is right on most counts. I consider myself Uncle even without someone giving me that nickname. regarding girls in B-schools, I could not gather courage or find someone interesting enough in the last 24 years of my life, “Ab kya teer maar loonga?”( what could I achieve in the next 2 years with grueling pressures to keep us busy?). Regarding the politics, I hope to at least learn a bit of it. Could not do it in my company, could not do it in during the under-graduation, and I really am praying that I finally get placed in a city with affordable cost of living or with a fat salary to support me in pocket burning cities like Mumbai. Shit, I already feel the heat from the burnt wallet.
I have not spent my 34 Months of working in IT, but in a very niche field of medical equipments engineering, so I can proudly say, “I AM DIFFERENT”. I am even willing to come back to the same company in a better role, in a capacity having more and better responsibilities, and yes, definitely with a better salary. I am hopefully parting on decent terms (well, with at least with most people).
The bottom line is, i dont know if i will fit in. In the crowd of the freshers and those who have lesser work ex than me.
Is there a chance for a better salary jump and a leap in the role within a company? God I really hope so. Otherwise the obsession with B-school with sleepless nights, with tensions comparable only to hostage negotiations and fear like that in a combat situation, all my work would have been for nothing.
So, with an extremely pessimist attitude, will walk into a B-school and prepare for the worst. Maybe if things turn out better, I can take solace in that fact that life may not really be as screwed as I feared. And if things turn out bad, I can tell myself, dude, life is screwed for everyone. Try to relax.

PS: apologies to anyone specially from Tier 2 B-schools. I am genuinely sorry if I offended your college.