IIMB Class of 2004

Amit Gupta, the ML banker, turns Partner

2011-04-26T18:02:00.002+05:30

Amit Gupta, the ML banker, turns partner at a new buy-out firm that has bought out some of BAML's investments, mostly Indian & Chinese domestic focused growth companies. Wishing him all the best in his new endeavor.

Check out - http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/newquest-buys-bankamerica-merrill-lynch%5Cs-pe-portfolio/432740/

NewQuest buys Bank of America Merrill Lynch's PE portfolio

BS Reporter / Mumbai April 19, 2011

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has sold out its Asia non-real estate private-equity assets to NewQuest Capital Partners, the Hong Kong-based PE firm set up by four private equity firms, including Paul Capital. The Bank of America Merrill Lynch Asia private equity team will continue to manage the portfolio as part of NewQuest Capital Partners. The financial terms of the deal are not disclosed.

The acquired portfolio consists of over 20 growth-equity and buyout interests primarily in Chinese and Indian companies focused on domestic economies. Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity’s current India portfolio includes DRS Warehousing Pvt Ltd, Pipavav Shipyard Ltd, and Vestas RRB India Ltd. It has also invested in Salarpuria Group’s five-star hotel project SPV, but real estate deals are not part of this spin-off.

Last year, HSBC Holdings’s Asian private-equity arm, with about $2.4 billion under control, was bought out by its managers and renamed Headland Capital Partners, although HSBC retains a 19.9 per cent stake.

Newquest formed NewQuest Asia Fund I, LP, a fund focused on investment opportunities in Asia, to buy out the assets.

The NewQuest Capital Partners’ private-equity team will be led by Darren Massara, as managing partner, and Amit Gupta, Bonnie Lo, and Min Lin as partners. All of them were formerly part of Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Asia private-equity team.

“If you look at private equity strategy in Asia, it’s a very crowded market, with buyout firms, local and international private equity firms, hedge funds and family offices all buying $25 million-$75 million minority or growth investments,” said Massara. “We’re focusing on secondary positions, because it’s an undertapped market—in Europe, 50 per centof exits are through secondary sales, in the US, in the low 30s, and in Asia, just around 10 per cent,” Massara added.

Newquest, which has $400 million under management, is backed by a syndicate of private- equity fund managers including HarbourVest Global Private Equity Ltd, LGT Capital Partners and Axiom Asia, apart from Paul Capital.

YLR's article in WSJ

2010-02-27T14:15:00.001+05:30

Check it out -

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126465641868236415.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines

Blog for Sangharsh 2010 - IIMB, A & L sports meet

2010-01-25T12:34:00.001+05:30

http://sangharsh2010.wordpress.com

IIMC Stung

2010-01-14T11:21:00.008+05:30

Guys... looks like the previous post... on the drubbing that IIMC had received ... has stung them badly.

Our blog, which receives single digit hits each day, was swamped by IIMC folks.... 210 visits in a single day from their website (their website!!! .. how??? ...i am beginning to feel sorry for them)

Please find the proof below (thankyou google analytics)

Other interesting facts- Hans and Ranga seem to have ardent admirers on the net, or maybe they went on egosurfing trips in the recent past

Cheers guy

Let the sporting rivalry grow ....

Samhar 09 - from Spidi

2010-01-13T13:16:00.003+05:30

Disclaimer - this is a topo from Spidi for those alumni who do not remember their spidi password. Posted here under best intentions with no aim to cause any harm to original creators of the content

The Story of yet another Victory for the IIMB Sports Contingent

Contributors – Tshering WY, Maithri B, Abhijit Raja, and a very senior ex-Sports Council member who shall remain unnamed (Special mention to Chinmay VT for his poetic rendition on ‘Football’)

It is funny how different generations of IIMB’s Sport’s Secretaries have initiated new inter-IIM sports fests, and each time the first edition was played ‘away’, and not at home (Appachu and IIMK in 2004, Dipak and IIMA in 2006, and Nishant and IIMC in 2007)… maybe there’s something inherently nice about people from IIM Bangalore… but who can tell? But one thing is for sure, that once our Sports Secretary placed a gag order on all who were traveling to IIMC for the third edition of Samhar, we would definitely lose at one event – sledging. And so it transpired. But aren’t we getting ahead in the story? Isn’t the story supposed to start before we reached the campus-in-the-armpit-of-the-world? Of course! And so shall it be written, and so it shall be told…

After long hours, many meetings, pieces of communications, pleading etc., our Sports Secretary, Abhijit Raja managed to get a reduced but substantial sum to enable the IIMB contingent to travel to ‘that IIM’, for which Pandit Nehru may as well have placed the foundation stone himself (“New Hostel” – you must be joking right!?) While negotiations were on during the day to fund a few more students to go on this venture, negotiations in the night were with Patil (not one with first name ‘Smita’) to ensure scheduling, rules etc. were in place. Our Sports Secy. was so busy with all this that he outsourced all superfluous activities (designing and ordering t-shirts and jerseys, ticketing, purchases, playing cards, etc.) to his minions in the Sports Council - blessed be the ‘heavily’ stocked council (Sangha, and Mario are cases in point. Now we know why Raja ‘created’ a larger team. In Raja’s defense, he refused an application that came in late, despite his heart telling him to do otherwise… but that’s a story to be told on another day.)

Preparation for Samhar’09 was an interesting affair. No, rain didn’t disrupt practice, but a dug-up ground (Yes! Finally we are getting turf on our field, although the timing of the dig was a little off) meant that Cricket, Hockey, and Football were hit badly. The good thing was that the new talent more than made up for the one lost to graduation, and things were looking good. Then as the d-day approached, there was all the optimizing to be done to ensure we did not overshoot our travel budget, and a score were axed, to form the final few dozens who went and played in the dirt… err, pardon the pun.

The d-day arrived. Friday, 3pm, IIMB Hostel Entrance. Mario stood outside the bus with the ‘roll call’. An erstwhile Sports Council member was the last to arrive(!), and gave yet another speech. The bus left for the airport. Checked-in JIT. Some decided to finish their snack at the lounge; ‘modalla snack, aprama flight’ (first my snack, then the flight) being the motto; with barely couple of minutes to take-off, and yet manage to board the plane. Three hours of sleepy flying (interesting for some with cameras – don’t get ideas), an hour or so of a ride in a heritage bus from the 1970s (Kolkatans know their history – there is certainly a lot ‘going around’ to know), and Mario’s uncharacteristic silence on the bus not helping, and we finally entered JOKALAND (or was it Jokerland?) at 1.30 A.M. on Saturday, 8 August 2009. Akshat Patil, the IIMC Sports Secy, a well-fed chap whose facial hair didn’t quite catch the fancy of a co-author on this piece, greeted us at the IIMC gate, and led us straight into the expected cacophony of “1234, IIMB ki @#$% maar”, “IIMB ki !@@ ka #$%^&*^, IIMB ki !@@ ki @#$% @#$% @#$%”. We expected better, but what to do, IIMC also has it’s traditions… So they carried on with their chants, until they realized that we were actually having fun watching apparently intelligent educated people (they are from IIMC man!) act like gorillas thumping tables, and screaming for no apparent reason. What put the zipper on their mouths was that Raja and a few others joined them, and they didn’t know how to react!.

Aloo parathas followed, (can’t complain much about the food) much to the relief of the extremely hungry contingent. After making sure no more parathas were left, everyone except the Tennis players (who went to check the court and the lights out – the irony was to dawn later) scampered for the resting place before battle commenced a few hours later. The captains sorted out their strategies, and Raja did what he was to do till Sunday evening, run around Joka making sure everything was in place. It was 4 A.M. when everyone finally went to bed only to wake up for matches scheduled for 8 A.M. in the morning.

FACTFILE

For those of you who do not know, Joka is a small village south of Kolkata (It is in 24 Paraganas district, and not in Kolkata). To rub salt into wounds (no pun intended), one got to know from reliable sources that the founders were given a choice between Joka and Salt Lake for setting up the campus. They of course chose Joka with the belief that it would develop faster than Salt Lake. So much for foresight. The rest as we all know is history.

DAY 1 (SATURDAY, 8 AUGUST 2009)

Girls’ Throwball was slated to kick things off with Cricket happening in parallel, and Football, and Tennis to follow post lunch.

GIRLS’ THROWBALL

The morning was quite dreary, with a steady drizzle. Apart form the IIMB Throwball team, Abhijit Raja was the only IIMB person at the court, as the rest of our people were either headed to the Cricket field, or waiting for the Chess match to start. So there was a one-person cheering team from our side for the first event. And then the match referee went missing, and hence a student from IIM Calcutta (their Cul. Secy. Justin), and our Sports Secy. Raja, decided to officiate, which meant zero crowd support for the IIMB team! After a bit of haggling over the rules, the match commenced. We got off to a good start, with some excellent serving from our side. The IIMC crowd joined in with gusto to cheer their girls and sledge our team. The first set was a whitewash with our team demolishing the IIMC team 15-3. It was then that the IIMC crowd decided there was no point sledging the players, and turned their undivided attention to the referee. That the second set was a lot closer, with a number of close calls didn’t help Raja’s cause. Apparently when they started sledging Raja, who was giving most of the calls on the points, they hadn’t realized that IIMC also had a referee who had blown his whistle a total of 3 times during the course of the match! Needless to say, the match was halted a number of times (Siddharth Gopalakrishnan, ex-prezi, and de-facto Throwball referee, coach, and captain… err, please strike off that last part… can recount a tale or two on that one) and in spite of a number of re-serves, and the IIMC girls reviving their game in the second set, the IIMB girls held their own to win the match comfortably at 15-3, 15-12.

IIMB had opened it’s account with the ladies leading the way.

Samhar’09 Score 1-0 to IIMB

CRICKET

Rain, more rain, and a bit of drizzle… or as the English would say, ‘Only a bit of dampness in the air, ol’ chap!’

Into every life must fall some… this was the day for the Cricket team… not just literally, but figuratively as well, as they were to discover later. There was a light but persistent drizzle in the morning that threatened to keep play away for a good part of the day. But the players were determined not to let anything come in their way. They left the IIMC campus after breakfast for the venue, which was 15 minutes away (It may have been so had we taken rickshaws, but no one complained about the bus ride, which was a truly interesting experience. Our bus driver was intent on creating the mother of all traffic jams from Joka to Behala – that’s the equivalent of creating one till Dairy Circle in our parlance. We thanked god the Cricket teams weren’t pelted by the Joka village junta for blocking their roads for a good part of the mid-morning.) The Cricket field was a sight to behold. We expected nothing more than just a decent regular school pitch, with a slightly damp wicket, but a third man area with mounds of earth that looked like a collective dump taken by a herd of elephants, a sandy landing spot at the bowlers’ end, a nicely water-logged wicket, at which on another day may have seen the local fisherman at work, a ground that went ‘plachak-plachak’ when one walked on it, and a forty-yard boundary were all so alien, that we were as amused as we were shocked!

The hosts won the toss and chose to bat (someone once said, win the toss and bat, and if ever it was the right thing to do, this was it – a dicey wicket, and a small boundary). The IIMC top-order went hell for leather, and although they kept losing wickets at regular intervals, their scoring rate was around 8 for the first 10 overs. Our fielding was superb and a stunning catch each by Nishant (a high skier running backwards at square-leg), Rahul (it was a shot from the well-set IIMC captain’s bat, and it was traveling. Rahul ran, leapt in the air, and made it look much easier than it actually was), Rituraj (the ball was dipping in front of him, but he took a few quick steps, and dived at the right moment to take a beauty at long-off), put the skids on any batsman who threatened to run away with it. But the catch of the day was by KMV (‘K Middlename Victory’ is one half of the ‘Annaiyya’ duo in the IIMB Cricket team, with Abhilash ‘Khurana’ Sridharan being the other half.) KMV standing at short cover, stepped back in slow motion, for a slow loopy miscued shot hit off a slow-ball of a medium pace bowler on a slow and low wicket… managed to fall-over before the ball got till him, juggled the ball, and held on to it much to the bowler’s relief! The IIMC captain was getting a bit frustrated with the start-stop nature of their batting, so he sent a man to ‘stay till the end’. Normally this instruction doesn’t ever work at this level, but this guy stuck to the wicket like Araldite to any surface. His anchor role helped their four-down batsman to do the damage. Making full use of the small boundaries; although he did hit one that would have been a six on any regular size ground; the four-down hit 81 at a very good strike-rate to undo the good work done by our bowlers in the middle overs. The brunt of the punishment was borne by the ‘Annaiyya’ duo’s spin from ‘both ends’ that got carted around for a boundary every other ball. The cherry on the icing was when the IIMC spectators sledging ‘K Middlename Victory’ – he was first called ‘Kumble’, got hit and was re-christened ‘Hirwani’, and got hit some more was re-christened ‘Bahutule’… our guess is that in this multiple personality disorder, the real KMV was lost somewhere, and we hope that like Quick Gun Murugan he’ll make a reappearance very soon, and bowl his unplayable ‘two variations of the same ball’. The 5^th pair for IIMC ensured that where 150 had looked difficult, they pulled through to a par score of 190. This was a big morale boost for the hosts, and it showed in their demeanor on field, when it was our turn to bat; which was definitely the turning point in the game. Our top and middle order just didn’t get their act together, with everyone getting out to balls that were slower and lower than what we are used to – each player finished the shot only to see the ball still coming at him! At a point in the match we were 27/7, and in a hole deeper than the Mariana Trench. Up stepped captain courageous Mario, and when Anjan joined him post lunch, they put up a 80+ run partnership that saw us out of a humiliating situation. That the luncheon break may have had something to do with the momentum shifting in our favour, is still being debated at IIMC. When Mario got out after a well-fought 44, Shini Patel came to the crease and threatened to pull off a Houdini with his cameo (45 off 16, 5 huge sixes – the ball was lost three times…), but one kept low, and rattled Shini’s stumps. Anjan was the not-out batsman with a respectable 41 to his credit, a gritty inning where he braved through extreme dehydration, and have done some good bowling earlier on, was clearly the best performer on our team. Not every rearguard action can yield a result like the one India had against Zimbabwe in 1983. We fell short by 45 runs. Lessons learnt? Do not practise fielding, let natural talent shine through, don’t give any batting during nets to people who are likely to score runs in the match, reverse the batting order (the IIMC solution… nah!) Just kidding… we know we bat till the end of the line-up, and one good knock from the top/middle order, and the game would have gone our way.

But the figurative (refer the first para) had happened. The IIMB team, undefeated through 12 inter-IIM matches, played the proverbial unlucky 13th. A disappointing loss that broke a very fine run since 2004. Although our team braved the weather, and the conditions, and carried on regardless in true sportsman spirit, it was not their day. In the present context, we had lost our first event of Samhar’09, and that being Cricket, with it’s make-or break ability meant we had given the hosts a big morale boost.

Samhar’09 Score 1-1, advantage IIMC.

CHESS

On the eve of travel, the Sports Secy., and a very senior ex-Sports Council member who shall remain unnamed were doing some measured calculations on what we would likely do well at, and which events would likely ensure a victory at Samhar’09. Chess, like Cricket, was one of the events that was supposed to be ‘ours’. And then the pieces fell…

Chess turned out to be a totally one-sided affair, and the other side did what we have been doing to our opponents over the years. The match was played in two rounds of 5 boards each. A very strong IIMC team came up with a clinical performance, and at the end of the first round, they were up 4-1 with 3 wins and 2 draws. The funny thing was when our captain Harish and the IIMC captain Pai had a few heated exchanges. It was unbelievable that this could happen at a Chess event, but there it was!

So at precisely the same hour when our Cricket team was heading back after it’s loss, the Chess team was staring at defeat, and only a miracle could save them. The final round would be played at 7.30pm. (To be continued…)

FOOTBALL – mudball, all the same…

What one likes about football is that it can be played in almost any weather condition, and a decent playing turf can balance out the bad weather factor. They say that in Kolkata Football and religion, are synonymous. Blokes at IIM Cal seem to have taken this to heart. As the saying goes in Joka, and I quote, “Only one who can wade through mud, and yet kick the ball can truly experience the divine”. And so we had ‘mudball’ or whatever it was that went around in the garb of Football. The venue was the “Faculty Football Ground”, and our footballers had to do two things, play the IIMC team, and try and attain ‘the divine’. Apparently IIMC had been practicing to attain ‘divinity through mud’ for a few weeks. Not to be outdone, our footballers took up the challenge. They played an outstanding game but a field goal never did happen, although both teams did come close to the goal posts a couple of times. And so it came down to penalties.

All through the game, the IIMC sledging team was at it, scoring a million points in true ‘Whose line is it anyway’ style. The specific target was our goalkeeper (‘Lama’, our goalkeeper from a couple of years ago can narrate a few stories on that one…). They sledged our goalkeeper relentlessly… in Hindi… only to realize very late in the day that he doesn’t understand Hindi! (“Tupaki keezhe poda ra! Mind it!”, which in Hindi is “Tum bandook pek do! Mind it!”)

Back at the penalties, our players scored on the first three, and their’s managed to mark lines parallel to the goal-line with the trajectory of their kicks, or at best hit into the crowd behind the goalie. We won 3-0. Such was the exhilaration at this victory, that our Footer captain Chinmay burst into a song! We reproduce the song here for your benefit:

Fields of glory

It was the hottest of times, it was the sultriest of times,

It was the wettest of fields, yet strengthening our shields,

With shin deep muck and water so saline,

Descended the IIMB football team for Samhar O Nine.

Starting on the offensive, wading through the water

Prowled the Bangalore tigers on the IIMC goalkeeper.

Sumer Khraw was the only one to run, his feet so nimble that he was having all the fun,

Archisman pounded a powerful header as Chandra’s runs gave us a breather.

Lian was abused by the hostile crowd and he kicked them back roaring aloud,

Aditya did not let the defence crack as Basu and Rahul jumped on the opponents’ backs.

Supporting the team were our deadly cubs, Sonam, Kiran, Tali, Vikas and Soni coming as subs,

The skipper controlled the ins and outs, while Rituraj and Suswin gave a few knockouts.

And yet it was after the hour long brawl,

Still frustratingly just love-all.

So on penalties it was to be decided who was to take

the icing on the muck covered cake.

Our three forwards slotted them easily with a smile,

while two of theirs missed by a mile.

And so it befell on Vinny to save the fall

He dived to his right, stopped the ball and used his butt to great enthrall.

The tigers roared with merry delight scripting the victory in near twilight,

For many years people will remember,

These fields of glory that we shall always treasure.

- Chinmay

Samhar’09 scoreline 2-1 in favour of IIMB, with Chess hanging in their favour.

TENNIS

The IIMB Tennis team was very eager to play. The four-member squad had gone to check the courts the moment we landed at their campus. The event started an hour late, with the IIMC captain insisting on watching each of our players in the warm-up before deciding the draw. It was an event our captain was certain about winning, and turned out to be a very interesting event after all. The first singles was played between the IIMC Tennis Captain ‘Zulla’ and Arun. Arun pulled the first set back from 2-5 down to take the set. By the time the set ended, the IIMC sledging team had returned from the Footer match, and they were smarting. The second set began under lights. Now, the IIMC captain was not too keen to play in the lights before the tie, but carried on nevertheless, and this was despite our Captain checking with him if he was ok with continuing the match. Zulla, despite cramps, played consistent Tennis, and took crucial points. (Of course, had he been playing against IIMK, they would have asked him to forfeit the match, but then again, we are not IIMK!) Zulla was also buoyed by the momentum gained by the sledging team, with Arun at the receiving end of the jabs. In what was below even IIMC standards, the crowd was sledging during points, especially when our player was about to hit the ball. Our captain objected, but we were told it happens even at Wimbledon! (When did someone shout a consistent sledge at a player at a Grand Slam, and that during points! Ridiculous!) Despite a good fight, Arun lost momentum at crucial stages in the match, which cost him the last two sets and the match 7-5, 6-3,6-3.

The second singles was an interesting match. Ankit Singhal from IIMB playing against Chaitanya of IIMC. The match got underway, and the score was at 3-2, deuce, 2^nd serve, with Ankit serving when the IIMC Captain asked for the match to be stopped. The conversation was as follows:

IIMC Captain: “My player cannot see the ball because of the lights.”

IIMB Captain: “But he’s playing fine, and picking every serve, and the game is going equal.”

IIMC Captain: “But I already told you about the lights.”

IIMB Captain: “The conditions are the same for both players, and this is your home court! We are willing to play, why should you have an issue!? And you just played two sets in the lights despite earlier having issues with it…”

IIMC Captain: “Each player is different… Also, your player is tall, he can sight the ball, my player is short, so he is having problem sighting the ball when the background is the white-wall” (WTF!!??).

IIMB Captain: “Ok, then let’s serve from the other end only, that way the background will not be a problem.”

IIMC Captain: “But I already told you about the lights.” (Counter reset: argument goes into infinite loop. Enter Sports Secretaries…)

IIMB Captain: Let’s play this match tomorrow morning as you suggest, and let’s play the next match in the tie right now. I have to play two matches, and also play Hockey tomorrow, and I am willing to play, so let’s finish those matches, and come back to this one in the morning.

IIMC Captain: I already told you about the lights. We don’t want to play under lights. (Record is stuck at ‘We don’t want to play’.)

Discussion doesn’t head anywhere. According to one of our players the IIMC captain was drained, and he had to play the doubles match after the second singles, and stalling was a good option. The stalling technique pays off. There is a power cut, and soon after it starts to pour, and put to rest any chances of playing. Tennis is set to resume the next morning. (To Be Continued…)

GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

After the sterling performance in the morning at the Throwball court, the IIMB girls were raring to go. And this time it was Captain Nemo leading the way, for the event was Basketball. A huge crowd gathered around to witness one of the most exciting matches of the tournament. The crowd was super excited, and cheering wildly, all for the IIMB team. Reason? We were playing Basketball, and the IIMC crowd was in awe! The IIMC girls were no match and we drubbed them 22-1 in probably the most one-sided match ever. There was some excellent shooting by Shruti and Nemo, and some fabulous overall play by Tejasvi. IIMC managed to touch the board a few times, and scored their lone point with a free-throw that did quite a jive on the hoop, and went through to tumultuous applause!

In a post match conference Captain Nemo described IIMC’s point earned from a free throw as a “tukka” (fluke), a comment that experts say may lead to war with Lady Luck, who refuses to have anything to do with the IIMC Girl’s Basketball team. Tejasvi from IIMB was fined her match-fee for a not-friendly gesture at an IIMC Sledge-Master (The IIMC Sledging team has a hierarchy where a ‘Sledge-Master’ is somewhere in the gray area between a ‘Sledgling’ and a ‘Sledge-Hammer’, with ‘Sledge-Marshall’, and ‘Sledge-Captain’ being other notable designations.) The details of why the said gesture took place are too gory to print in this strictly ‘family account’ of the meet. . The professional play by us, and the hapless performance by them was in stark contrast to the ‘mud-wrestling-minus-the-mud’, heavy-sledging, 4-2 win in IIMB’s favour the last time the we visited IIMC!

With the second victory chalked up by the IIMB girl’s teams, the Samhar’09 scoreline read 3-1 in our favour, with Chess hanging in their favour.

CHESS …Reloaded

After being 4-1 down in the first round, the second round was crucial. Salvaging the event meant winning 4 out of 5 pints, sorry points (although a certain member of the Chess team would have wished for both), and things were looking bleak at the break. To quote the same Chess team player from lunch earlier in the day, “We were screwed man!”

The IIMC team needed only 3 draws to ensure a win, but they did better than that. They made 4 points in the second round as well, for an overall score of 8-2.

Samhar’09 Score 3-2

BOYS’ BASKETBALL

After the humbling of IIMC Girl’s Basketball team by Captain Nemo’s Crew, the men were out to prove their mettle. The only difference was in the quality of the opposition. The IIMC Basketball team was decent, and on another day, the match could have gone our way. The match was keenly contested, and no team had a major advantage. Like most contact sports, this too became a little rough, and when three members of the opposition team came a little too close for our captain Sangha’s comfort, he let out a war cry and twisted out of their grip with such force that the three opponents fell a few feet away – one wonders if it was a tag-team wrestling match against Punjab power. (Other incidents of how Sangha got members of the IIMC crowd to shut up cannot be printed in this bulletin for as mentioned earlier, this is strictly a ‘family account’ of the meet.) A 5-point lead in the second quarter was maintained till the end of the third quarter, when it started to pour, and the match was set to resume the next morning. The overnight score read 22-17 in IIMC’s favour. (To be continued…)

BOYS’ BADMINTON

In the words of one of our players, the IIMC Badminton court was a cooker. And the bad lighting (they had tube lights in the players line of sight!) meant that the players were at a disadvantage. But when one has a champion player like VV in the squad, one doesn’t think too much about these things. VV did complain about the lights, but carried on in true spirit of a sportsman. The event itself was perhaps the most closely fought contest at Samhar’09, with the IIMC contingent’s sledging team again in full force. Although the matches went on till 4 A.M., the IIMB contingent wasn’t far behind with even our girls giving it back to them – their target was a questionable ‘male’ sledger who seemed to be a beneficiary of the latest Delhi HC judgment on Article 377.

VV set the tone in the very first match winning it 15-1, 15-6, with five of the points lost because of losing the shuttle in the lights. In the next match, Karthik lost to Kartik (Kartik VS Karthik!!), and the tie score was 1-1. The first doubles match saw VV pair up with Chandan, which we won comfortably, which led to the closest match of the badminton tie, the fourth singles between Chandan and the IIMC captain. We expected Chandan to win the game, as he was the better player. Chandan dominated most of the match. His opponent, hung on despite cramps, and pulled through at crucial points. Chandan let the momentum and the game slip in both the second, and the final set to lose a very closely fought match. The stage was set for the final match, the second doubles, where Vibhu, who was fighting high fever, paired up with LN. Vibhu dominated the proceedings, and after a subdued start LN also came to the party. The IIMC pair started strong, but our team came from 9-1 down in the first set, and didn’t look back. We won comfortably in straight sets, and with it the Men’s Badminton event.

Samhar’09 Scorecard at the end of day 1 read 4-2 in favor of IIMB.

An assessment of the situation at the end of the Badminton match (end of day 1) was that we had lost two events that we had counted as ‘ours’. We were down by 5 points in a Basketball match that could go either way. Tennis (at that moment) was 1-0 in their favour, with the 2^nd match evenly poised (although we were confident of a win). Things were not looking very comfortable. Add to that the rain factor meant that one didn’t know which would be the last event of Samhar’09. All this meant only one thing – win every event that we get to play, whether we are strong or weak at it! This discussion done, a slightly worried Abhijit Raja tried to catch a few winks before hitting the Volley court the next morning.

DAY 2 (SUNDAY, 9 AUGUST 2009)

BOYS’ BASKETBALL- continued

It had poured through the night, and it took the IIMC organizing team an hour more than budgeted to get the court ready, and as a result the match started later than scheduled. Nevertheless the match did start, and IIMC had a 5-point lead. Our shooters missed a couple of tough chances, and the magical touch was missing. To quote our captain, ‘we didn’t have those 5 minutes where we completely dominated the game, and that made all the difference’. A couple of very bad referee decisions cost us about 5 points, and some hera-pheri with the timer (our Sports Secy. was also keeping time, and his stopwatch showed two minutes to go, when time was called) cost us the match. The final score was a 6-point difference.

Samhar’09 Score 4-3 in IIMB’s favour. Raja’s focus completely on Volleyball.

VOLLEYBALL

If there was one event that really took the wind out of IIMC’s sail it was Volleyball. As soon as we arrived in campus, we were told over and over that we would have it easy in Volleyball because their Captain, their best player (national level player) was injured on Friday, and would not be able to play. He was incidentally doing ‘Ok’ on Saturday, and was miraculously ‘fit’ on Sunday. IIMC may just have some amazing doctors – any place on the Indian team’s support staff?

The event was to take place on Saturday night but due incessant rain, it was postponed to Sunday morning. Seven A.M. was the scheduled start, and Tshering, one of co-authors of this piece, reached the volleyball court to see what the situation was. As expected, the court was waterlogged, but what was shocking was that no one was even trying to get the water out, unlike on the Basketball court where they had already started work. Tshering immediately informed Raja who called Patil, the IIMC Sports Secy., who asked if Volleyball could be cancelled. Unfortunately for Patil, this was Raja’s sport, and there was no way Raja had come this far to do a Darshit (In the previous visit to IIMC, Darshit Shah, IIMB Sports Council, member of the maximum number of teams - Volley, Cricket, Snooker, and Tsepak, did not get to play – Cricket washed out, Snooker not played due to ‘Chinese Snooker Table’, Tsepak never happened, and in Volley he watched from the bench as the others demolished IIMC in straight sets, and refused to be substituted.) Add to that, Tshering, and Rautela were still smarting from the loss in Cricket (although Rautela let off some steam in Football), and Vibhu had made all our chaps practise so much they wouldn’t go back without playing a match. Seeing that it was useless just waiting, our players went to the court, and with the help of a few labourers set the court right, lines and all. After an hour’s work during which not a single IIMC person came forward to help, the court finally looked like an hour away from playable status. Then the second shock- their Volleyball players supposedly had classes on a Sunday and couldn’t play (why were we not told earlier?). The lack of enthusiasm on the part of the IIMC team to play Volleyball was unbelievable! After another hour all of their players seemed to have sacrificed their classes, and were reluctantly on court, and the match finally started.

As IIMC had predicted, the match was a one-sided affair with IIMB cruising through in straight sets 25-17, 25-19, 25-16. Their so-called national level player couldn’t do much. Tshering had an amazing game, although the heat got to our players a bit. A professional performance by the IIMB, and we had another event in the bag.

Samhar’09 Score 5-3... still far from comfortable

TENNIS (Continued…)

The next morning the second singles was resumed from 3-2, Deuce, IIMB Serving 2^nd serve. Ankit outplayed Chaitanya, who was playing a very ‘uncle-like’ sliced-lob game (not befitting his junior state player status). Ankit was patient through some very personal sledging by his own IIT batchmates to take the match 6-4, 6-4.

Their third player, and our captain were both playing Hockey, so the doubles match started after the players returned from Hockey. So the rest of the Tennis story is again “To Be Continued …”

GIRLS’ BADMINTON

Still hurting from last year’s loss, Swati ‘Judgu’ Verma and Noddy went full throttle into this one. Swati won her singles match comfortably, and followed it up with a fine doubles match, pairing up with Noddy. Girl’s Badminton was wrapped up in no time, adding a vital point to the scoreboard. Once the two national level players from PGSEM join in for the 4-way meet, there is no way we will lose this one!

Samhar’09 Score 6-3… and one could see Raja breathing a bit easier now.

SNOOKER

Another IIMC-style organizing related debacle. We were the guests at another campus, in a different city, and we were required to book a Snooker table! Fortunately we managed it on Saturday evening, thanks to one of our Snooker team members being a local! It was an event we could have won easily, but unfortunately squandered away. VV as usual won his match, which set the stage for the doubles match. Praveer and Dhruv played a good match and were up in the second frame after winning the first frame. An incorrect reading of the board meant that our players thought they had won the frame, and the event. Unfortunately, the frame was still open, and they lost the second. The third frame was tense, mistake-laden, and close, which our lads lost, setting up a decider. Poddar played the last singles, which was a close match, but lost.

Samhar’09 Score 6-4… Anyone monitoring Raja’s heartbeat?

SWIMMING

Swimming had been our stronghold for a while with national level swimmers gracing the team from time to time - Manu Bharadwaj, Mathew, and Kutral are a few names that come to mind. In the absence of big fish, we had expected Swimming to go ‘close’. A tactical error on our captain’s part to allow a single player to play up to four events made that ‘closer than comfortable’, and the advantage had been handed to the opposition. Our team fought well, but their one national-level swimmer won each of his four events, giving them crucial points, and put to rest any chances we had in Swimming. The event was held at a pool owned by the Calcutta Swimming Club, and as the status message of an IIMC Swimming team member later that day stated – ‘I swam in a lake today’… the event could as well have been held in one of the seven ponds of IIMC!

Samhar’09 Scoreline 6-5. We had a fight on on our hands. We also may need an ambulance on standby if Raja should collapse.

HOCKEY

The Hockey and Swimming teams had left in the same bus, and the events would approximately have started at the same time. The SAI hockey ground was a shocker for our team. SAI had newly refurbished the astro-turf pitch, which would be inaugurated on Aug 15, so we were to play on the old-style grass pitch. The pitch was half covered in water, and the goal at one of the ends was submerged under 3-4 inches of water (“Hey! We should have got our Swimming team here!!”). The field had no markings, and we were seriously contemplating calling off the event. But our captain decided that if we could get a match, we would play having come this far – given the state of the pitch, it may not be Hockey as we know it, but we will play! So, the members of the IIMB team (and none of the members of the IIMC team) took it upon themselves to get the match going. While their team rested in the shade, our bong team members went and persuaded the SAI people to get the pitch ready, undoing a lot of damage done due to ‘organizing’ IIMC style. Our boys actually helped the SAI people get the ground in shape - Sonam, who was bumped off the squad to accommodate Sangha as the Goalie drew lines on the pitch - and ensured that the match started, and all this despite zero effort from the IIMC lads to help. And so the match did start, after a looooooong delay. The first half belonged completely to us with a number of crosses into the shooting circle. We got two penalty corners within the first few minutes, both coming from crosses from the right flank where Sista was ruling over his IIMC counterparts. On one of the penalty corners a shot was ‘carried’ by a defender while standing on the goal line, and we were awarded a penalty stroke. Amarveer promptly converted the stroke, and we were ahead in the very first ten minutes. Then began a game of some hard defending. The IIMC team made a few good moves in the first half, and even gained two penalty corners. But some good defence, both in the field, and in the goal saw us through to the second. The second half was evenly matched, but having played a very vigorous game in the first half the comparative stamina levels of the IIMC team were higher (Btw, who was resting when the lines were being drawn? Ah! Ok…) Throughout the first half, one of the defenders of the IIMC team had been chirping a lot to Chandra. Chandra, being himself, gave back in equal measure, and soon a scuffle had to be broken up with the referee chastising both parties. Things got to a fever pitch, and the opponent said something like “Tod dunga” (I’ll break you). At the first opportunity during the second half, Chandra’s promptly responded by breaking the guy’s stick! The opponent threw his stick and started behaving like the character from ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’ who goes “Meri dhanush tod di! Nahin karta main naatak!” (He broke my bow! I’ll not act in this play anymore!). It was hilarious, especially with Chandra walking away with an audible “Hee! Hee!”, and a big smile on his face – that chap also stopped chirping. Back in the game, IIMC persisted, and attacked a few times, but superb defence and deft stickwork by Sathish, and Amarveer, and excellent goalkeeping by Sangha saw us through a tough fought half. The score remained 1-0 till the end, and gave us a vital win. The second team that was short on practice space (apart from Football) had won. It was also a short-term justification for a long-term high value purchase (Hint: Hockey Goalie-kit). A special mention must go to Siddhartha Sengupta (Sid Sen), who was not only the reserve wicketkeeper in Cricket, bringing much needed fluid, and glucose replenishment, continued his good work on the Hockey pitch. Unfortunately for him, despite being the first choice for substitution, he was at the opposite flank providing water to some players just when one of our forwards asked for a substitute! One only imagines how it may have been if he had scored a goal… but alas! all he did was a Darshit!!

Samhar’09 Score 7-5.

GIRLS’ TT

The last girls’ event was Table Tennis. To wrap up a wonderful tournament for the girls, Kritika first won her singles match against the top IIMC player, and then Kritika and Maithri won the doubles match in 4 games, ensuring that the third singles match was not even required.

Last heard – An IIMC player beseeching the IIMB girls saying, “Please let us win at least one of the events yaar!” That line summed up the girls’ events at Samhar’09 – a complete demolition of IIMC.

Samhar’09 Score 8-5. A healthy scoreline, and Raja was sitting easy.

CARROM

Carrom is always a sport that can go either way. The format was Girls Singles, Boys Singles, Boys Doubles, Boys Singles, and Mixed Doubles. Sulu won the girls singles event easily for us. Then the IIMC team made a comeback and won the next two matches, i.e., the singles, and the boys doubles. But our ace, VV had not played any match up to that point, and was to play in the last 2 matches. VV demolished their best player in the fourth match (singles) 30-8.

The mixed doubles was the clincher, and a crunch match. Players were not allowed to speak with each other. VV was paired with Sulu. Everytime Sulu went to play a shot, she claims, VV would look at her as though saying in disbelief “What are you doing!?”, and Sulu would play the shot in trepidation about VV’s reaction… a tough yardstick to measure oneself by. Sulu managed to hold her own, and we won 30-18. With it, we won the Carrom event 3-2. It also marked the 9^th event of the meet in our favour, and even if all 17 events were completed, the Samhar trophy was ours to keep for the third consecutive time.

Samhar’09 Score 9-5 in our favour. Raja has a smile on his face.

By this time, Raja had already stated receiving congratulatory calls from ex-sports council members (In fact some of them knew the score line before Raja did at various points during the first half of Sunday).

But there were events still left to be played, and Raja wanted to win them as well.

TENNIS (Continued…)

By the time the players returned to the Tennis court for the third match, it was 2.30pm. We were to board the bus for the Airport at 5.30pm, and unless we polished off the opponents in four quick sets, the match Tennis would have been left in the balance. The fact the we had already won 9 events, and Samhar’09 was over, made the IIMC captain ask, ‘What are we playing for? Let’s make this doubles the final match of the tie, and the winner takes it.’ Our captain refused stating that we have come to play a full draw of best of five matches, and whoever wins 3 matches wins, and in case it is 2-1, 2-2, no one gets the points. And so, after coaxing for about half an hour, Arun and Bharathan started against Zulla and Nitesh, and raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set in about 15 minutes (the 1 in their favour was thanks to three double faults by our player in the opening game), when it started to drizzle. After a few minutes the IIMC captain started complaining that he was slipping, and did not want to play. Eventually, the drizzle got steady, and the Tennis event was called off.

This was one of the most interesting events in that different and weird explanations were being given by the IIMC captain to not play the event, and that too at home! As a result we lost out on an easy point, which could have made it 10 events in our favour at Samhar’09. The IIMB Tennis Captain, after being the ‘chair-umpire’ for a full match, and calling lines for another, didn’t get to play (he was slated to play the last two matches of the tie)! He has vowed that henceforth he shall definitely play in one of the first two matches, ruling out the possibility of becoming the equivalent of a Davis Cup non-playing Captain.

BOYS’ TT

This was an event with a lot of controversy regarding the format of the game as both our teams and the IIMC teams wanted to play in different formats. This disagreement was something that neither Sports Secy. was aware of. The disagreement took place two days before the event, and the captains did not bother keeping the Sports Secys in the loop! Hence began the ordeal of discussion on the format to be used, with both teams not budging their stand. Ultimately a compromise was reached, and the event started. The IIMC team had a national level player in their ranks, Anand (who is incidentally in their FPM programme… so I hope you get the drift) who easily defeated our top player Shantanu (PGSEM), in the first singles. Then, Kavash (PGSEM) meted out almost similar treatment to their second singles player to level the score at 1-1. Anand played in the doubles match to give IIMC a 2-1 lead, which was promptly cut down to parity with Ashok wining the third singles. With the score tied at 2-2, we had hope of winning the Boys’ TT event. Tuhin was to play the last singles, and was the better player. The match was played amidst huge noise levels, and whenever anyone asked for the score, our contingent would go “9-5!!” Tuhin never really got going, and his low levels of fitness (self proclaimed reason for loss) saw him lose focus, and mis-hit simple shots, and lose a match he would on a normal day win easily. However, match-day is not normal, and IIMC got a consolation win.

Samhar’09 Score 9-6 in our favor.

ATHLETICS

The Athletics team had left for the venue of the event, which was the same school where the Cricket match had been held the previous day. After their departure, we for some reason could not contact them. By now the contingents were more or less indifferent to the results of Athletics as it would have no bearing on the result of Samhar’09. The event was held in ‘sub-optimal’ conditions, which mattered especially in field events. We lost the Athletics event narrowly.

FINAL Samhar’09 Score 9-7 in IIMB’s favour. Having won the event three times in a row, the trophy stays in our trophy case for good. When the first inter-IIM meet was started in 2004, the idea was to move towards a single sports meet that would involve all IIMs. The 4-way meet (IIMs A, B, C, and L) that we host in January 2010 is a very positive step in that direction. With it there is a high likelihood that bilateral inter-IIM meets are a thing of the past, and so, Samhar may have ended once and for all.

Overheard: The IIMC Sports Secy. got very senti, and was overheard speaking to a member of our contingent right after the negotiations for Boys’ TT, that all the discussion over rules and formats, and ‘we are C, you are B’, is not what he had bargained for… ‘cul-fest jaise hona chahiye… koi mere saath baith kar daaru hi nahin piya!’... Fair enough Patil, this is an opportunity to build new friendships… So let’s compete, and also have a drink the next time around… I’ll toast to that J!

EPILOGUE

It was almost time for us to leave the IIMC campus when Abhijit Raja, our Sports Secy. suddenly realized that the trophy had been in his bag all along! Since the meet would not be complete unless he received the trophy from his counterpart, he frantically called Patil to join him along with some IIMC Sports Council members for a chat on the 4-way meet, and also for a photo session with the trophy being handed over. As his tagline said till a few hours ago - “KAMINEY is L E G E N… (wait for it) … D A R Y! Truly Legendary!”

IIMB - coming soon in a theater near you!

2009-11-30T12:03:00.005+05:30

For those who have not been able to visit the campus after graduation and miss it badly - no need to come all the way to B'lore - just catch Aamir starrer '3 Idiots' being released soon and relive your memories!

Buddy ki hawaii udaan

2009-09-22T11:46:00.003+05:30

Buddy's flying guys.
his theka is the only 24 hour madira-station (other than paanch sitara) in saddi dilli
here's the print media acknowledging
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/delhi/24-hour-bar-at-IGI-soon/articleshow/5040095.cms

Ankur Jain gets featured in Outlook Business

2009-09-19T19:23:00.003+05:30

Ran into Ankur Jain aka dooda at Mumbai Airport last night. Last we heard about him was when he had left ITC to join his father's Business (which is into manufacturing of biomass based power plants - something I learnt yesterday) within a few months after IIMB. Ankur seems to have some great plans for his company which is also being acknowledged by Outlook Business - (read - http://business.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?261674). Given the shift of focus to renewable energy- I think Ankur Scientific is going to see some very exiciting times in the coming decade. All the best dooda and keep us posted!

Hisar Loksabha Notes by Manu

2009-05-31T09:11:00.002+05:30

Taken from his facebook notebook....

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Let me start with the bad news. Votes received are disappointing. Only two thousand people voting for us is a terrible news. We can’t do anything about it now. But here are my thoughts at the end of phase I on political journey.

Our campaign was sound both ideologically as well as professionally. We had a good platform of “Clean and Good Politics” to stand on. Our campaign manifesto was well received and praised. Most likely, more people read our manifesto despite it being limited to Hisar constituency than those who would have read Congress and BJP menifestos across the country. A lot of politicians apparently praised and one very senior Haryana politician is rumored to have told his workers to get photocopies of our manifesto made and distribute. Another ex- Minister (I haven’t seen him ever) said very high praises of me. One politician I bumped into poll day admitted to the impact made by us. So clearly, in terms of ideology, we were the best in Hisar and were appreciated as such.

Professionally our campaign became known for its reach, hard work and down to earth approach. We were there in newspapers, on TV, on Radio, on internet. We covered more than 100 villages. We covered a lot of city areas on foot. We were visible, for sure. Using Raginiwalas, to create crowds in villages, was I think hallmark of our down to earth approach. We gave our message but we delivered it in terms that ordinary people can understand. And yes we worked hard till the end right upto the day of counting.
That we made an impact was evident from the fact that on the counting day, more people talked about our votes. I think our votes were second most discussed number on that day, first being victory margin of winning candidate. Our campaign was a proper election campaign and I am proud of the fact. Because being an ideological plank we had serious risk of running a sanitized campaign.

A lot of those who were on the campaign feel betrayed by people. After all, there was no compulsion to lie to us, we were a small campaign. However, I don’t think that people were lying to us. At those moments after personal interactions or my speeches, there was a genuine desire in a lot of them to vote for us. This desire might have waned later on its own as it is difficult to stand alone or more likely other candidates pounced upon our voters and surgically removed our support during last few days. We were very vulnerable on this count as we had no workers on ground, we only had voters and our voters were lonely sane voices. Its far easier to confirm to community, succumb to pressure than to stand one’s ground. A lot of our voters would have done that.

There are hard lessons to be learnt from this outcome. People will say nice things, may even want to vote for us and we may slog as hard as we can, there will still be no significant votes. We will have widespread sympathy, ideological agreement from ordinary man but still there will be no votes. This time we didn’t have workers on ground on each station. We can work hard on this aspect but I am doubtful of getting winnable votes even after 5 years of hard work.

The biggest learning from the votes is key to voter’s behaviour. A typical voter says –

1. My vote is very valuable – that it hasn’t got anything for him so far doesn’t matter, HE BELIEVES this way. No point challenging this assumption.
2. He is not willing to take risk by voting a new platform. He is seeking assurance. He follows crowd. And we can not ask for complete transformation.

In our case, I am confident that even on the polling day there were at least 10000 voters for us. 8000 of them changed their mind in last crucial five minutes fearing that their vote is getting wasted.

We dispelled the notion that ordinary people don’t understand how government works. They do. It is surprising that people in villages knew that it is their taxes that run the government. They know they are being looted but they feel helpless. Instead of revolting they are seeking a simpler way to making government working better than what we presented. Our route was long, tortuous and still uncertain.

Where do we go from here?

Practically, I would like to finish this phase by saying, lone warriors can’t win this war. A lot of us will have to get into political platforms and start fighting small battles and gradually finish this war. Ordinary man is not willing to revolt and help us finish this quickly.

I am not clear on what I will be doing. Its been a very intense two months and outcome has been so shocking that I need time to react and decide. I would like to remain politically active as that’s the only way to change our future. In what manner and how much is not clear to me. Hopefully, I will have this answer by end of next week.

For all the contributors, I will be getting a CD of campaign done and sent by 31st May. It will be enjoyable. It will have a memorable and witty TV campaign alongwith snippets of me talking about budgets in chaste Haryanvi.

I would love to answer any questions on elections and politics.

Modi's had a baby boy

2009-05-09T08:47:00.003+05:30

Manu Creating Waves

2009-04-15T22:13:00.002+05:30

Found this on a blog...not sure of the source...but makes an inspiring reading... we are so proud of you Manu!

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Manu Dig Vijay Singh, an IIM B alumni and till recently a senior dealer, selling currency derivatives in Standard Chartered, Delhi, has quit his banking job and taken on the mantle of cleaning up the facade that runs in the name of politics. He has filed his papers with the Election Commission, and is contesting the Lok Sabha elections this year as an individual candidate from the province of Hissar, Haryana, where he hails from.

The son of a simple newspaper correspondent and one of 2 siblings, Manu has no prior experience in politics, is not from a “connected family” and certainly does not have a silver spoon to help him on this arduous road that he has chosen. All he has are blessings and good wishes, and a hope that he, and more of his kind would be able to stop the existing politicians from hemorrhaging this country. Manu, is pretty much like anyone of us, urbane youths... middle class, educated, employed...married and father to three beautiful girls.

So then what induced this madness? I cannot think of a better word to describe such a drastic move, and that too, in this time of recession and job losses. Who in his right frame of mind, would leave a well paying job, in a niche business, with a large foreign bank, for a greater cause. And mind you this is some one who has a wife, 3 children and no real safety net to speak of.

Like most people, my inherent cowardice ensured that all I could do was render some financial support, and applaud, his efforts from afar. Manu has only a short window of time, India goes to polls in less than a month. Also his paucity of funding, lack of campaigning experience, and independent status( no backing of any large political party), make it highly improbable for Manu to win.

It was with these thoughts plaguing my mind that i boarded the aircraft to Delhi to go onward to Hissar to meet Manu, on his campaign trails. For the benefit of those, who like me, are slightly geographically challenged, Hissar a province in Haryana, is situated about 200kms to the northwest of Delhi, and is home to over 2.2 million Jats,Banias,Punjabis,Agarwals, and other communities.

Hissar Statistics

Population : 2.20 Million

Voting Population : 1.25 Million

Area : 6000 sq kms

Covers : 2 major cities Hissar/Haansi, 10 towns and about 650 villages

Competition : Jay Prakash ( Congress) is the reigning MP

Sampat Singh ( NDA ) is the Ex Finance Minister of Haryana State

Bhajan Lal / Kuldeep Bhisnoi ( Haryana Janhit Congress ) Father /Son Ex Chief Minister of Haryana State

7^th April 09

A 2 hr flight to Delhi, and 4 hr road trip takes me to Hissar. The road trip is not the most pleasurable of experiences, given that like most Indian roads, it has no central divider, so 16 wheelers, cars, bikes and bullock carts all whiz past on both sides at hairs breadth, keeping you riveted to your seat. I counted 3 major accidents on my way, but then again, this is India, and life is cheap here. If you are unfortunate and meet with an accident on this stretch, it is not very comforting to know that this constituency has only one civil hospital, where I am told, not much has changed in the last 30 years. But then again, unlikely any of you reading this mail, will ever dare step into a government hospital in India. We are so used to not expecting help or only such substandard help from the government, that we do not really expect any hospitalization support and assume that one only goes to a private hospital. Sadly not many can afford that luxury. Between accidents, disease, malnutrition and lack of infrastructure so many die in this country, that it is just a number. As some one famous once said "One death is a tragedy, a million, just a statistic"

I pass ripe wheat fields on both sides, the crops seem ready for harvest, “ Baisakhi “ ( North Indian harvest festival) is around the corner. I m glad that given some amount of good work done here in the 70-80s on agriculture , the farmer of Hissar, is better of than his not so lucky, cousins in Maharashtra /Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, where farmer suicides are at record highs...and this is an agrarian country, for crying out loud.

These and a host of other issues, is what Manu, and I know frankly many other good contestants like him are taking up.

Its well past noon, by the time I reach Hissar City, and try and locate the address of Manus campaign office. Its dusty and dry, the temperature is well over 30C but better than Delhi/Mumbai, although the sunlight is exceptionally harsh. I finally come across a bold sign in red “ Election Office Hissar Lok sabha : Manu Digvijay Singh “ It’s a modest 20ft * 20ft, square room, that boasts of a table some scattered chairs and a solitary computer in one corner. Manu is flanked by his brother in law Ranbir, another colleague from Stanchart Manish, and a friend Anil. All my doubts, on seeing such a basic and bare office, are done away with, by the sheer enthusiasm in the room. Hope breeds here. An optimism, a belief, and a fire to bring about change. After exchanging pleasantries and having the quintessential Indian “ chai “, I was brought up to speed, on local politics, issues, electoral statistics, competition, campaign plan and strategy.

Post my de-brief, braving the scorching afternoon sun, we venture out to our first stop a local public place. Flanked by Ranbir and I, Manu would walk up to the unsuspecting passerby and fold his hands, say namaste, and go about his pitch. All in all, Manus pitch was basic, a brief introduction during which most people would wonder what this was about, till he uttered the word “ independent candidate “ and “ Lok Sabha Eelctions “. Most of the people we met, went through a pretty much standardized series of emotions, starting with suspicion, then raised eyebrows on realizing that they were indeed face to face with the candidate, disbelief when they realize he is standing as an “ Independent “, surprise at his age, and shock at his background but finally a smile, to know they finally had an honest candidate they could vote for. Initially it seems hard for people to accept that he has left a well paying job in the city, to enter politics. Like most Indians, they only know politicians who come from uneducated, criminal back grounds, and with a main motive of amassing personal wealth. In a country where most politicians, especially in northern India, are infamous for their bloodied charge sheeted history, and their manifestos are nothing but progress reversing, Manu is an aberration.

By 4.00 pm we were back at the office, to our surprise, we are greeted by a group of young boys waiting to meet Manu. They had heard read about Manu and his campaign in the local papers. We spent the next hour interacting and chatting with this young group of students. It was heartening to see this level of awareness amongst the local children about politics. In the 14-16 year age bucket, they were clearly too young to be able to vote, but they were keen to know what ideas Manu had for Hissar, and pledged their unwavering support in any way possible. Having seen most of the urbane youth rarely take any interest in politics, it was nice to see that these kids knew more about their local state of affairs than their city cousins.

Its 6.00 pm, and we are busy getting Manu ready for his rehearsal speech. He will be going live on local televisions over the weekend. Having studied in Hindi medium village schools till 9^thgrade, its laudable how he self taught himself English, studied further and now converses in English with ease. But given where we are today, Hindi will have to be the medium of communication and Manu can be quite the orator in Hindi. It is the first time I hear Manu give a speech. His language, diction and choice of words are hard hitting, and so is the content. It is ironic, as usual, certain large established political parties are distributing television sets, to woo voters. I am only glad, because it’s probably these same television sets that will spread the message that Manu and the other Manus in this country are spreading, and will hopefully lead to the undoing of these unscrupulous politicians.

By 9.00 pm we are back at the office, a bit famished, but the day is still not over for an aspiring politician. We break for dinner at Manus house, and then proceed to meet some of the well connected elders of the city. They are quite encouraging of young Manu. There is much debate on his strategy. Some of them feel, he will be no match for the fire power of some of the more well established players, who are using every thing in the book to win. Cash is king. And I am sure no one is more acutely aware of this than Indians. It is indeed a country of contradictions. On one side it has more than a third of its population below the poverty line, and yet the same country has the highest amount in the world stashed away in Swiss Banks( rumored to be at $ 1.4 Trillion ), the closest country that comes in second has only about 0.5 trillion. Political will to bring the names to light, absolutely Nil, no points for guessing why.

In any case, thankfully there are those who feel that now, that there is a good independent candidate for people to choose from, a lot of votes will swing Manus way. All in all, apparently, given the dirty politics in place, the criminalization of candidates, lack of real concern for the ordinary citizen, and sheer dirty politics, Manu seemed like a breath of fresh air to the people of Hissar. That means the main problem that Manu faces is lack of visibility.

To address this, we are up early the next day. Its 6.00 am, thankfully there was some rain and hail in the night, and the temperature drops to a comfortable 18 C. The plan is to stalk out the famous parks and walking areas, where a lot of the more politically active people take their morning strolls. Ranbir and I take up strategic positions distributing pamphlets, while Manu does the talking. It is not easy. As an electoral candidate you have to learn to strike the right balance. Humility is required since nobody knows him, Manu has to walk up to complete strangers and make that connection. He has to be confident but not cocky, educated and urban yes, but not so urban to have lost touch with ones roots, humble because he knows he is dependant on them for their votes but not servile, because he can actually help make their lives better. Better in every sense, and not just financially. It is a good thing to spread financial and economic welfare, but not by fuelling communal hatred or splitting people on caste and religion.

All most all the people we met, were happy to see a good clean candidate, especially someone young and educated. We got invited to a couple of houses for tea. Amidst snacks, farsan, mithais and sugary teas, the discussions continued. One common topic that reverberated was the debate about aging politicians, and how it is time for youth to jump in to the fray. If nothing else, this countries demographics call for it. We cannot have a country with over 35 % of its population under 21years run by politicians who still harbor aspirations for office, and that too, when they are 20 years past even the legal retirement limit age of 55 years. Neither is politics any families inheritance that can be handed down over generations, it should go to the deserving candidate, and lineage cannot be the only reason to qualify. In fact as we left the last house, one elderly gentleman, just held Manu tight, with moist eyes welling over, he smiled and said, Yes there is still hope……

After a standard local break fast of cholesterol laden yet sumptuous parathas, we plod on, and finally arrive back at the base camp ( Office ) by 10.00 am. We have only half an hour to bathe and shower, apparently there is a press conference at 10.30 am. By 11.00 am the room is filled with press media and a couple of local TV stations. They are all curious to meet and hear more about this new candidate of Hissar. I am pleasantly surprised to see their solidarity and support towards Manu, who at this juncture is clearly a dark horse in this race. Given that most of the reporters know about his background by now, the questions are restricted to mainly them trying to get air Manus political views, ideas, and manifesto. The interviews last about 2 hours and Manu is unsparing of any party and critical of both ruling and opposition ditto. Manu did justice to most questions, especially what comes to mind, is when Manu was asked his views on the recent controversial “ show throwing case “. Manu retorted that “ If by just flinging one shoe, justice was reinstated and 2 politicians had to step down, then may be we should consider flinging 275 shoes and cleansing the whole system “ caused titters even amongst the reporters.

The rest of the day was again a flurry of activity as we went from one place to the other, the basic agenda being meeting people and spreading the word. We covered colleges, public places, parks and any other place of public activity. We did come across some touts, who said that for a price, a certain number of votes could be easily bought. I was shocked to know, apparently the going rate in Hissar is Rs 500 ( about US 10) per vote. That’s all what it takes to buy the right to cheat plagiarize and exploit this country and its people for another 5 years The tout was thanked and shown the door. The end could justify the means and all that crap, but fact is, Manu and his fellow mates, have the firm belief that if given a choice of a clean, righteous, do good, candidate, most people will do the right thing. The fact that US 10 means a months ration for the larger part of this country, means that a lot of people will probably still take the money, but thank god for “ Secret Ballot “, they might still actually vote differently and make the right choice.

Its late in the afternoon now, and I hasten to leave. I still have to cover that long road trip, and have a night flight to catch. I am certainly not brave enough to venture on these highways, once the sun sets. After long goodbyes and best of lucks to Manu and the team, I head back. I know that by this week he would be done with the city campaign and would probably start to target the villages. I am sure his campaign will be a success there too. I like to believe that even in rural uneducated parts, people have realized the power of their vote and want to make a difference to their lives.

As I sit in the comfort of my home, sharing my thoughts with some of you, I know that Manu, and like him there are others, who are out there trying to make a difference. I helped in whatever little way I could. Frankly I don’t know if Manu or so many of the other new deserving independent candidates will win. Given the odds stacked against them, its long shot, by far. But having experienced this political campaign for 2 days with Manu, and seeing what I have seen and experienced I am convinced that CHANGE has started. It is only a matter of time now, before this change permeates through the entire system. I don’t mean to sound ideological and impractical, I am every inch, the cynical, capitalistic, luxury chasing, bonus loving banker, but if even, I can feel this, then I guess change is not far away.

Voting is not only your right, but also your responsibility. Hopefully fewer people will not just use the public holiday to plan a family getaway, but will exercise their precious vote judiciously.

In then interim, if you feel you wish to contribute in any way whatsoever, you can contact Manu and his team on the numbers listed below.

Email Contacts for Manu and team

ekbharat@gmail.com ; manudigvijay@yahoo.co.in

Mobile Contacts for Manu and team

9416146529 / 9910436336 / 9996648415

Their Website

www.ekbharat.in

*************************************************************************************

Aarav - Sarovar and Garima's little prince

2009-03-25T09:16:00.003+05:30

Folks Sarovar and Garima were bursting with joy when we last visited them.

They have a small and cute addition to their family.

A baby boy, named Aarav.

Here are a few pictures

Manu for the Parliament

2009-03-18T08:52:00.002+05:30

Folks Manu would be the first IIMB class of 2004 batchmate to contest a loksabha election.

He is contesting from Hissar in the coming polls ... details are sketchy... I will put up more information as it comes in... current news is that he is fighting as an independent

All the best Manu ....
May the force be with you ....

Reception Pics

2009-03-08T11:17:00.004+05:30

Thanks Alam!! It was really great to see you all at the wedding as well as the reception. I am posting some reception pics below. Cheers!!

Kashyap's Reception

2009-03-07T11:28:00.004+05:30

Folks Kashew's reception was a nice-food- good-friends affair.

In attendance were Alam, Afshan and Shums... Kholu, Meen and Munchi... G and Vishesh... Gullu Achaarya ...Shobhit Pande (seen mixing with unknown people).... Harsh Dayal, Mrs Harsh Dayal and little Priyadarshini ... there were also a couple of juniors and probably some seniors (my inter batch networking is pretty poor so wouldn't know for sure)

Thankfully everyone was spared the go-on-the-stage-for-video-and-snap ritual ...Kashew and Deepti circulated well amongst the guests and we got to spend a lot of time with them .... we utilized this time fully .. and tried our best to embarrass the newly married couple... when that didn't succeed ...we tried to embarrass everyone else by laughing and talking loudly (aided in good measures by free flow of booze .. a special mention must be made here for something called "Black Bull").... Anyways ...because this was a festive occasion.. people didn't seem to mind much... and we were allowed to carry on the party till late in the night...

The IIMB delhi gang was the last bunch of guests to leave .... and when we left we got a pleasantly surprising return gift .... The gift will ensure that Kashew's reception gets fondly remembered in many future gatherings of the delhi gang ....

...to sum it all up... the reception was a good Free Spirited gathering

Pictures will be posted after Kashew sends them to us

Found in the Attic

2008-10-31T10:52:00.004+05:30

D-block pic that was actually supposed to be used in the year-book -

K2 in the news

2008-10-11T08:28:00.006+05:30

As I opened the Mint edition and saw a headline on a microbrewery in Gurgaon, my first thought was, wish it was Suketu whose brewery they were talking about.

Suketu is however featured in the following article from the Mint

http://www.livemint.com/2008/10/11003643/The-microbrew-march.html

Suketu's brewery is still 'WIP' (work-in-progress) even though he was India's first to get a licence.

Kiran and Deepak's wedding party

2008-10-10T14:29:00.004+05:30

Kiran and Deepak celebrated their 3rd year of officially living together. The event was held in Delhi’s prestigious IHC last Sunday evening.

Kiran and Deepak were gracious hosts and the party was very unlike a typical Delhi wedding party where you barely get to meet the bride and groom. Both mingled well with all guests. There was pleasant piped music (no Himesh bhai blaring from speakers). In true American style, both cut a wedding cake (that 3 story types) after which a delicious dinner was served.

Alam, Kholu (and wife, kid), Sailor (and wife, kid), Vivek Gupta, Vishesh and I attended the event. Lack of enthusiasm on part of our batch mates to participate in this event was quite sad. After all, here is someone organizing a get together, giving you free booze and food and a platform to meet other batch mates that too at a central location. And yet people don’t turn up!

Curiously, I was told by unnamed sources (you can guess who was source of such juicy news) that Gullu and Keku , both cancelled their plan to attend this event and instead go off to some place in Gurgaon– just the two of them.

Guptaji's become a Dad (again)

2008-10-05T09:44:00.005+05:30

mail received on 17 Sept 2008

Shruti and myself were blessed with a baby girl on September 5.

Shruti, Vaani and (Vardaan and myself) are all doing fine.

Sharing few snaps.

Amit Gupta

Dhanno's blog

2008-08-02T13:14:00.002+05:30

Titled 'The Reluctant Blogger' when he started off last September, I guess its time to change that title (he has 11 posts in July as compared to all of 3 posts since last September!!) - the latest is a post on his cake baking skills!!

http://a-reluctantbloggers-blog.blogspot.com/

Vid's blog

2008-07-28T18:28:00.002+05:30

Link to Vidya's blog http://mostlygibberish.blogspot.com/
And while reading that I stumbled upon Maddy's blog as well http://definitelyrandom.blogspot.com/

2002-04 blog population continues to grow..........

2008-07-28T08:32:00.002+05:30

Dear All,

I have started a blog to share my views on different dimensions of life. The first entry is taken from one of the chapters of my yet to be published book, Be The CEO of Your life.

This is a five minute read so do take out time and share your feedback ( Good or BAD, all would be appreciated).

http://vivekgupta1977.blogspot.com/

I shall be sharing my views across various subjects from Online marketing, Business Anaytics to CAT/GMAT cracking techniques in coming days.

Regards

Vivek Gupta

Pallo & Samcho - Newsmakers of the Day

2008-07-13T22:12:00.004+05:30

:-)

Dabby's Blog

2008-07-09T18:29:00.002+05:30

Folks Dabby has joined the blogging population of our batch
his blog is called Stargazer and can be accessed at the ULR
http://onceuponatimeonablog.blogspot.com/

Thyags - Proud father of a Baby Girl

2008-06-26T20:32:00.002+05:30

This was the mail from Thyags
dear all....
both durga and myself are very excited and happy to share the news of our little girl's arrival in this world.... she was born on mon, 23 jun, at around 5 in the evening.... hope all's well with everyone of you and your families....
regards
thyags

Nava is a dad now

2008-06-01T18:34:00.000+05:30

this was Nava's message
Hi all,
My son was born yesterday (29 May) afternoon. Both mom and son are doing fine.
http://picasaweb.google.com/shanmugapriya.viswanathan/MySon has some snaps taken during the initial hours.

Regards,
Nava

Forthcoming activities - Mail from the SAC

2008-05-21T08:50:00.000+05:30

Dear all,

Greetings from IIMB!

First: Oreintation week for incoming batch of 2009

As part of the orientation week for the incoming batch of 2009 we have a panel discussion scheduled on 28th of June (saturday, Morning) on "Choice of career and career development". The panel discussion is expected to have anywhere between 3 to 10 year senior alumni of IIMB.

The incoming batch, though a mix of people with prior experience and freshers shall immensly benefit if you could spare some time to share your experience and thought process in decision making towards your career. The discussion shall revolve around how best a student can utilise his time on campus towards taking the right decisions in chosing the right path.

The interactive session is expected to last for an hour and a half at the maximum. We shall be obliged if you could forward your details and travel plans so that necessary arrangements can be made in advance.

Second: Ten year alumni re-union at IIMB

We had the '97 batch alumni re-union last year at IIMB during second week of June 2007.
This year we can schedule the re-union on 21st or 28th of June as per convenience of the alumni.
Kindly send in your suggestions on the same and also the confirmation of your participation.

Third: Seminar on Leadership at IIMB on 15th of August

We intend to hold a seminar on leadership on 15th of August at IIMB. For this we shall be inviting alumni of IIMB who are country head or business heads or enterprenuers or social activists- essentially leaders in their respective choice of careers. On the same day perhaps we could have the re-union of '94 batch alumni as well. We are still in the process of giving shape to the event so kindly offer your suggestions on whom we could invite, his/her contact details. extent and scope of the seminar.

An event of such a magnitude would require large scale sponsorhips so please provide us with contact details of people whom we could approach for sponsorship either within our alumni network or outside.

Kindly forward this mail to your batchmates of IIMB and other IIMB alumni you are in contact with.

Thank you.

Best Regards,Student Alumni Committee
"Building bridges across times..."

Anusmaran 2008 (Mumbai)

2008-05-20T12:41:00.002+05:30

PATHETIC ....

Organized in some unheard of Peninsula Grand Hotel in 'Saki Naka' ... I have attended better birthday parties! The steep entry charges, unenthusiatic organization and zero follow up ensured that this alumni meet goes down in history as one of the worst Mumbai will get to see...couldn't believe that the 'organizational abilities' of the new stock of MBAs could hit these nadirs.

Attendance was primarily from 2004 and 2005 batches. Could see a lot of familiar faces around (and embarrasingly couldn't put a name to those faces when they came and wished hello...getting early symptoms of Alzheimers I guess) The hall was low roofed, small and shady...music was too loud for conversation, and pathetic. The dance floor was a poor apology of a dance floor and anyway there were not too many people enthu to dance...Choice of drinks was very 'restrictive' with no room for breezer and wine drinkers. You had to hit the Vodka circuit, Beer belly circuit or the scotch brigade. I tried hitting the vodka with orange juice topped up with two tequila shots (generously sponsored by Vibhor)...and had a great time throwing up in the next morning Kingfisher flight to Delhi...just reminded that 30 is not 25. Vodka is not beer. Tequila is Tequila. And Aukat mein rehna chahiye...

Great to see Kotler after ages...and also good to have the annual catching up with Daby, Vishal, Nitin and gang. Newly marrieds Pirbhu was seen with his wife and Doley with Hubby. Padam Chabra had also joined in...

I am sure other reporters would have more to say...I think that the guys who returned from the gate did do an intelligent thing...

God's wedding

2008-05-19T16:21:00.002+05:30

Hi:
It gives me great pleasure in inviting you and your family to my wedding with Harini. The marriage ceremony is in Tirupati, my home town, followed by a Reception in Mumbai. Brief program details are as follows:
5th June: Reception at Tirupati
6th June: 7AM -8 AM: Marriage Ceremony
13th June: Reception at Mumbai
Looking forward to sharing our joy with you on this auspicious and happy occasion. Please do call me with your travel plans so that I can make arrangements for your stay at Tirupati.

Have uploaded the invite in Picasa and here is the link.
http://picasaweb. google.com/ srinivas. puni/WeddingInvi te/photo? authkey=uSNQw- fPJUI#5201343729 960828018
Regards Srinivas

Anusmaran 2008 (Delhi)

2008-05-19T09:28:00.001+05:30

This time Anusmaran was nothing much to write about. As far as I know, there were only some 25 people by the time the drinks started flowing (and there were not too any additions after that). The high entry fee, so-so choice of location combined with heavy downpour in the capital city made it a small get-together. Looks like the new Director is a footage king and he ensured that a video of him in different poses and dresses was played. The usual guys -Gika (& Samah), Gullu, Mayank (& family), Nishant, Presi, Uncle (& Garima), Vishesh, Vivek Gupta (& family) from 2004 batch turned up. Alam was conspicuous by his absence given that he comes for every social event. All in all it appeared that probably 2004 batch had maximum attendance amongst all batches!

SecA Term III

2008-04-19T10:14:00.006+05:30

Rummaging through some of my IIMB stuff, found this pic taken by Alam.

Wondering...

2008-04-11T20:48:00.004+05:30

A few months back when I was reading in ET about the entry level salaries offered to the young grads from IIMB and the dozens that were recruited on Day Zero, I was left wondering..."kaaash MBA do - chaar saal baad kiye hota, to aise kadkey to nahi hotey"

Of late, with the fee hike to 9 lacs and the reservations to some 49.5% ... I was wondering "Accha hua saala 4 saal pehle padh liya, nahi to abhi bhee Assam mein Tel nikaal raha hota..."

btw..since I've posted after a long time, must give some interesting update on Mumbai. Rahul Das, Charsi, Karthik and Rishi have all decided to move into Mumbai in the same housing society. How cool is that....

Alam: Lothlorien aur Body's Box Office yaad hai aur Hotline and Shanky's bhool gaya!!!

Anusmaran 2008 - your help needed

2008-04-11T13:46:00.003+05:30

Anusmaran 2008 is round the corner ... We need our smart reporters to hit the venues and get all the juicy gossip and info ... calling Volunteers ... hope Vishesh and Gokhale will continue the brilliant coverage of their cities (we can have new reporters if others are interested in their cities ... just talk to Vishesh and Gokhale) ... Interested folks please write a comment claiming your city ... first come first take ...

Below is the latest update on Anusmaran 2008 from -

Dear IIM Bangalore Alumnus,

The Student Alumni Committee, IIM Bangalore in association with the Executive Committee, IIMBAA, takes immense pleasure in announcing that the Global Alumni Meet - Anusmaran 2008 is being held this year on May 17, Saturday. We invite you to be a part of Anusmaran 2008 and refresh the memories of the wonderful days you spent at IIM Bangalore.

As a part of the event, in addition to the Food, Party, Dance and Masti, we shall be screening a Special Video showcasing the latest happening on campus. Be it Unmaad - The Cultural Festival, Vista - The Business Festival, or the Inter-IIM Sports Meets - all 3 of which we won against IIMA, IIMC and IIMK this year, we have news about all of them and a lot more in store for you at Anusmaran 2008. You for sure would not want to miss this unique opportunity and a chance to relive the days at IIM Bangalore which you have cherished ever since.

The event this year is being organized at 10 Cities World-wide. The City Coordinators for the various cities will be getting in touch with you soon. However, we request you to please drop an e-mail to your respective City Coordinators confirming your availability for the event. In case you are not in your home city on May 17, you are free to attend the event at any other location where it is being organized. Please contact the respective coordinators to make appropriate arrangements for the same.

The Student City Coordinators for the event at the various cities are:

New Delhi
Anirudh Roy Popli: ani.pops@gmail.com
Parvathi L Nair: anlepago@yahoo.com

Mumbai
Abhinav Sharma: next.neo@gmail.com
Gaurav Jain: jains.gaurav@yahoo.com

Bangalore
Debabrata Ghosh: debughosh16@yahoo.co.in

Hyderabad
Radhika Tandon: radhs.17@gmail.com

Tokyo
Hardeep Singh Guru: hardeepguru@gmail.com

London
Reema Mahajan: reema.mahajan@gmail.com
Aastha Sachdeva: aastha150886@gmail.com

New York
Manaw Mohan: manaw.mohan@gmail.com

Hong Kong
Abhay Golecha: abhay_golecha@yahoo.com

Singapore
Arup Halder: aruphalder@gmail.com

Our alumnus, Jhelum Chowdhury shall be coordinating the event at Calcutta. You may contact him at jhelum_c@hotmail.com in case you are in Calcutta. The event at Calcutta will happen on May 10, 2008.

We have been fortunate to receive your cooperation and assistance and we are hopeful that you will help us this year as well in making Anusmaran 2008 a memorable one. We would greatly appreciate if you could help us ensure maximal participation by letting your batch-mates, who are not registered with IIMBAA, know about Anusmaran 2008 and invite them to be a part of the event.

See you at Anusmaran 2008. Together lets make it a success!

Regards,
Student Alumni Committee, IIMB
"Building bridges across times..."

PS: You are requested to login on http://www.iimbaa.org and update your latest contact information

Getting a proper "Education"

2008-04-05T09:08:00.007+05:30

Being totally vela, I paid a visit to Spidi .. which, by the way , has acquired a new logo for it self .. here are the new and the original logo (Thanks to Samcho for digging out the old logo)

On the new look Spidi 3.14 ... I found some interesting stuff on tools currently popular on campus network. One of the tool's description said -

DC++ is the campus per-to-peer file sharing mechanism. Junta share their documents, photos, songs, movies, "educational material" and any other files worthy of sharing through it.
(emphasis are mine)

Educational material ... hmm ...

some things don't change ...

I bet that sharing "educational material" is the most dominant use of DC++ and is even more popular than sharing music ... brings back memories of "body's box office" and "lothlorien" ...
:-)

Vishnu weds Ahalya

2008-04-02T17:28:00.001+05:30

Hi All:

Ahalya and I take the pleasure in inviting you to our wedding cermony on 11th April. The wedding and the reception is being held in Chennai.

The wedding program on the 11th of April is as follows:
Muhurtham: 9AM to 10.15 AM
Reception: 7PM to 9 PM

Address:
Hotel Savera, Samavesh Hall,
146, Dr Radhakrishnan Salai,
Mylapore, Chennai.

In order to reduce the email size, I have hosted the invite at the following link.
http://picasaweb.google.com/vardhanv/MarraigeInvitation

Do let me know if you need any help in reaching the venue. We look forward to sharing our joy with you on this auspicious and happy occasion.

Thanks and Best Regards
Vishnu Vardhan
+91-98XXXX6868

And the Marriage season continues - Suseel

2008-03-18T13:18:00.001+05:30

It gives me great pleasure to invite you and your family for my wedding with Manju on Saturday, 22nd March 2008

Muhurtham: 7:33 AM to 9:00 AM,
(Meshalagna Pushkaramsham)
Venue: Chittoor Vari Sri Venkatesa Ratha Saptamy Arya Vyshya Thadiyaradana Samgam
N0.9, Medara Metta, Tirumala

Please consider this a personal invite from me. Your esteemed presence and gracious blessings will bring in lots of happiness to us and our family.

Thanks & Regards,
Suseel Kumar
+91 98407 91642

Why does our network sucks?

2008-03-17T13:43:00.003+05:30

I have been wondering this for a very long time now. One of the things that a person expects from a B-school is to build an excellent network - something which helps you when you are looking for that right job or hoping to start something on our own. But I have realized that when I compare B with other two schools (A and C) - our network is really down in dumps - there is only very little inter-batch communication and of course alumni site ( which seems to change every year ) has hardly any traffic or content. First of all why is this happening? My take is that alumni secretary is a defunct position where it is assumed that only activity they need to carry out is the alumni meet - which of course hardly ever has any agenda - it is no better than a class reunion party. I have not seen any other activity being carried out by the alumni secy. Pls correct me if I am wrong in my criticism and yes this is not directed against any individual.

Of course by now all of you are thinking that it is easy to lambast someone else (in this case the successive alumni secys) but what next? Well guys lets create a unified platform to bring all IIMB alumni together - let us not depend on alumni secy. For starters do we have an alumni union? At least I am not aware of one - if yes then lets revive it and if not, then lets create one with chapters across the world. Let us also try and bring out an alum directory on an annual basis through this union and a biannual or (if possible a quartely) news letter - though I think a blog would be a better idea but then not all members may be so blog savvy. Any views on this?

Hans and Leena blessed with a baby boy

2008-03-13T19:39:00.002+05:30

Well this may be a little late in the day but the lovely couple was blessed with a baby boy -"Kabeer" on 31st Jan. Congrats guys!!

A new Dawn for Pranjal and Meetu

2008-02-27T19:54:00.005+05:30

Meetu and Pranjal became proud parents yesterday (26 Feb 08).

They have named their little girl "Sehar".

brand new bloGGGGer

2008-02-14T11:11:00.001+05:30

Folks check out the newest blogger amongst us

G at http://theicon-o-blast.blogspot.com

Hey Pirbhu - Tum bhi

2008-02-12T10:27:00.001+05:30

Here's a cut and paste of Pirbhu's mail

Dear Friends,

All good things come to an end...for best of the things to get started.

Similar is the case with my bachelorhood days. It has outlived its usefulness. Yours truely is now ready to tie the knot.

Sushma and I are getting married this month.

The marriage details are as follows :

Date : 26th February' 2008
Day : Tuesday
Venue : Sri Kripa Hall, Plot no. 1, Sector no. 6, Khanda Colony, New Panvel, Mumbai
Baraat Start : 6.00 pm
Reception Party Start : 7.30 pm

It's going to be momentous occassion in our lives, as life will never be the same again. Having said that, we would like to enter this new phase in life with friends, fun and laughter all around. Kindly make it convenient to attend the wedding to bless us with your good wishes.

Please free to contact me for any details related to your travel or stay.

Looking forward to meet you,

Prabhakar Tiwari
99201 99XXX

PS: Wedding card soft copy

Mringi is a dad now!!

2008-02-03T00:48:00.000+05:30

Its 12.49 am on 3rd feb, just happened to ping Mringi and it turns out that the dude is in the hospital, as the couple has just been blessed(about 9 hrs ago) with a baby girl - a 3.25 Kg bundle of joy.The baby, mom and dad are all doing fine. The name of the baby is yet to be decided - Mringi is yet to decide between two names - an offer for online poll to help him come to a decision was politely ignored...:(.

Congrats to Mringi and Nikki - pls keep watching this space for pics of the baby.

A day of fun and frolic at the Mud-Fort - Kuchesar

2008-02-01T17:13:00.001+05:30

Bored of meeting in coffee houses and Malls, we ( Alam and Afshan, Little Alam, Anushman and some cousins, Vishesh and I ) decided to instead combine a nice long drive to a historic place with some good sight seeing. We wanted to go to a place that was close enough to Delhi, yet far away from the crowds.
Neemrana was too snooty with advance reservations and payments. Other places, were either too far off or were in our ‘been there’ and ‘not again’ list. Finally, we all voted for the Mud-Fort at Kuchesar.
After a rather rough ride on the roads of UP, we arrived at the 18-th century Jat Fort cum hotel. Per various web-sites, the fort had seven turrets as a defense against possible cannon attack and a wide moat was dug to form the ramparts (you can see the empty moat in the picture below) .

There were tons of activities to do. Alam and Vishesh immediately pounced upon the TT table in one of the verandahs. Afshan and Anshuman were playing badminton with Junior Alam in the patio while I went off to explore the fort and take pictures.
The rooms of the hotel reminded me of old British houses, with high ceiling, ventilators on top and large sweeping fans (a lot of Hotel reviews seem to euphemistically call this the ‘colonial charm’). Cane armchairs (the variety from our grandparents times) offered a comfortable perch. In fact, the hotel gave me an impression of living quarters in a government guesthouse with concomitant pricing of a civilian hotel. There was not much to see around the Fort per se as a large section of the fort has been cordoned off by the owners as their private residence (refer adjacent picture). However, even with the limited space, one can enjoy a balmy evening on one of the rooftops of the fort, which offer a picturesque view of the sugarcane fields in the surrounding area. A serene quiet place without the bustle of typical touristy resorts.

An old-fashioned buttermilk-churning machine made out of wood caught the attention of everyone in the Dining room as we waited our turn. Lunch looked very homemade, however, it was a low value for money. Even in the dimly lit dining room I could make out that the cutlery and dining tables had not been cleaned for quite sometime.

Bored of having explored the Fort in a few hours, we proceeded to laze in the gardens adjoining the Fort. Sitting in the Jhoolas made of Jute under a Banyan tree, we ordered ‘ganna’. Soon there was a competition as to who could eat maximum ‘gannas’. Before we realized, it was dusk and time to go home. Over tea, I could already hear chatter about plans of our next visit to another historic place.

(Note: for the next article, people pictures will be taken specifically for this blog.)

My Cricket Blog !!!

2008-01-20T18:51:00.000+05:30

Guys...
have been writing a blog on cricket (dont most people do ?? ;-)
Here is the link:

http://mycricketview.blogspot.com/

Hope to get some good feedback on it...

PS: Alam, can you put the link at the side ? I cannot change the layout with my login.

Cheers
Amit

After winning over east-coast B conquers west-coast

2008-01-19T14:42:00.000+05:30

Here's the story from MBAuniverse
http://www.mbauniverse.com/innerPage.php?id=ne&pageId=886

If you thought that management students at India's prestigious institutes were the proverbial bookworms, think again!

Students from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad recently battled it out over not the usual case-studies and quizzes, but thirteen games like cricket, tennis and swimming. IIM Bangalore played host to the sports contingent from IIM Ahmedabad for Sangharsh'08, the second edition of the Annual IIMA-IIMB Sports Meet between January 11-13, 2008.

In an action packed weekend that saw the two teams battle over 13 events that included Badminton, Tennis, Table-Tennis, Volleyball, Throwball, Basketball, Football, Cricket, Chess, and Swimming, IIM Bangalore won 9 events to the 4 won by IIM Ahmedabad, and are now the title holders of Sangharsh.

Earlier, Prof. Pankaj Chandra, Director IIM Bangalore, inaugurated the event.

The outstanding players at Sangharsh'08 were: Badminton - Sagar Thakar, Saumya Krishna (IIMB), and Amreen Sodhi (IIMA); Football - Nishant Gupta, Francis Haokip (IIMB), and Adrian D'Souza (IIMA); Tennis - Sriram Venkiteswaran, Nishant Gupta (IIMB), and Arjun Shetty (IIMA); Cricket - Devender Kumar, Chintan Valia (IIMB); Volleyball - Aditya Gurunath Systla (IIMA); Throwball - Saumya Krishna (IIMB); Snooker - Praneet Chawla (IIMB), and Anubhav Kaul (IIMA); Basketball - Pranay Shetty, Hardeep Singh Guru, Anupam Anurag Kerketta (IIMB); Swimming - Mathew Abraham (IIMB); Chess- Narayana Bhanu Prasad (IIMB), and Anita Kishore (IIMA); and Table-Tennis - Sahan Ray, Lipsa Nayak (IIMA).

IIM Ahmedabad will host the next edition of Sangharsh in January 2008-09.

Unmaad 2008 - Invite

2008-01-14T12:55:00.000+05:30

here's the invite from the cultsec

Dear All,

It gives me immense pleasure to extend my personal invitation to all of you for Unmaad 2008. This year Unmaad is being held from the 1^st to the 3^rd of February and I sincerely hope that it will be convenient for all of you to come down to campus and be part of the fest. Our endeavor has been to make Unmaad bigger in terms of quality of competitions and participation and it is only with the participation and support of all of you that we can achieve this

We are conducting 2 pronites this time. The first one, on the 1^st of February, is a rock pronite featuring Motherjane and Zero. On the 2^nd of February we have the Unity Concert featuring Strings and Mrigya. This time tickets can be purchased online too at the following links

1. http://www.iticket.in/MovieDet.asp?MovieID=716

2. http://www.iticket.in/MovieDet.asp?MovieID=715

3. www.unmaad.com

Hoping to see most of you here for what promises to be 3 days of fun and mayhem. It would also help if all of you could give publicity for the pronites and the online ticketing links in your offices and friend circles.

Regards

Jidesh Haridas

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Warm Regards

Jidesh Haridas

Cultural Secretary

Students Cultural Committee

IIM Bangalore

+91 9916540134

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Why its dangerous to be from our batch and visit Manhattan...

2007-12-24T19:24:00.000+05:30

You might end up getting shot, or clicked, in various stages of partying... G&V (Gayatri and Vishesh) were in New york for a week, and we dragged them onto our bacchhanalian nights in New york's dive bars - People in attendance - G&V, Pallo & Samcho, Ranga & Purni, Subbu & hema, vikrant & his iPhone, and a nameless bangalore guy who dropped us home -

(l-r:Ranga, samcho, subbu, vishesh, pallavi, vikrant, G)

(clockwise from top left:Pallavi, Purni, Samcho's friend, Subbu, Hema, vikrant, G, Samcho, Ranga)

Vijaysimha and his wife (Neha) also had come down to NYC, as part of their globetrotting (they r gonna be someplace sufficiently snobbish in Europe next year) -

(clockwise from top left: Pramod (our mutual NYC friend), Simha, Subbu, Vikrant, Neha)

(I sent an innocent mail to Alam, and wound up (forcibly) getting volunteered to post these pics...note to myself...never trust a 'nai' with no hair...)

Baby Girl for Geetika and Mahindru

2007-12-24T19:04:00.002+05:30

A few days back got a SMS from Mahindru ... Said that he and Geetika had become parents ... they had a baby girl ... am waiting to hear more ... name ... first photos ... etc etc

Congratulations to Geetika , Mahindru and lots of love to the little new member of the IIMB Class of 2004 family.

Nabar's taking the plung

2007-12-01T09:14:00.000+05:30

Yet another one bites the dust. This was Nabar's mail (honestly I haven't added the arrow marks) -

> Dear All,
>
> I am getting married on 5th December in Mumbai.
>
> People in Mumbai do make an effort to come.
>
> People not in Mumbai if planning to travel to Mumbai
> around that time do call me so that I can make stay
> arrangements (98677 41929)
>
> Venue:
>
> ISKCON Mandapam, Ground Floor, New Bldg, Hare
> Krishna
> Land, Juhu, Mumbai 400 049.
> Muhurat: 5:30 p.m. followed by reception
> Dinner: 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
>
> Chalo, hope everything hunky dory with everyone!
>
> Cheers!
> Kaustubh

Sound's good - New Music Room on Campus

2007-11-26T18:55:00.000+05:30

News for anthony, cheetah, usha, akg and all music fans from our batch.
This was caught flashing on the (largely defunct) alumni website -

After a long wait, the endeavor to completely revamp the music facilities on campus has been successfully completed. IIM Bangalore now has a soundproofed music room (in L base) completely equipped with state of the art musical instruments. No more dilapidated instruments and ad-hoc practice venues, we now boast the best music facilities across all the IIM’s in the country. This should give a huge fillip to the immense musical talent that we have on campus.

Et tu Doley

2007-11-26T17:23:00.000+05:30

Its raining brides and grooms ... this time its Indrani and Imran Jafer (2003 batch) all ready to say "kubool hai"... This is what Indrani's mail read -

Hi!

I'd like to invite you for my wedding with Imran Jafar to be
soleumnized on the 14th of December 2007. The wedding ceremony will
take place in Guwahati, Assam, my home town. There will be a reception
party on the 15th of Dec in Guwahati and another on the 18th of Dec in
Hyderabad from Imran's side. Please find the details attached.

It will be great of you could come. Please do let me know so that I
can make your stay arrangements accordingly.

Regards,

Indrani

Wanted Again- Batch mates who will cover the marriage for our blog
(interested people leave a comment or contact baawara@gmail.com)

Enter the Dragon- IIMB

2007-11-19T12:06:00.000+05:30

Ever wondered what brought you into IIMB? This might be close to the criterion used in our times -

"...
The results of X and XII standard of a candidate accounts for 25 per cent of the score, while the bachelor’s degree accounts for 15 per cent. Maximum weightage of 35 per cent is given to group discussion, group discussion summary and personal interview, while the remaining 5 per cent is for work experience and whether the candidate has taken any other professional course like accountancy.

To be called for the interview round, a candidate should be in the top 15 per cent scorers in each section of the CAT. Candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and disabled applicants need to be in the top 50 per cent in the logic and quantitative sections and top 45 per cent in verbal section.

.."

Source - The Hindu

Later addition -- IIMB website has a more detailed explanation of the process
http://www.iimb.ernet.in/iimb/docs/PGPSelection2008.pdf

Pic from Andy's Marriage

2007-10-14T17:28:00.000+05:30

You would know the people ... but still ... from left -
Pati, Payal(Mrs Pati), Smruti, Shanu, Ganny, Sudha (Mrs Andy), Alam, Garga, Andy, Nanga, Nabar, Pansari, Gokhale, God, Piyush

Congrats Lehman

2007-09-18T12:24:00.001+05:30

My visit to Bombay (for Andy's wedding) was a fruitful one. I caught up with some of the juiciest gossip going around.

The hottest one doing the rounds is that God is drawing an obscenely large pay package and that he got a personal call from the prime minister to cut down on his conspicuous consumption. God denies both the rumours - "boss with the subprime crisis and all ... the bonuses will not be that large"

The more credible one has come from an unusual source (who requested to remain unnamed) - Our secret source was himself present during Harsh Lehman's marriage ... yes my friends lehman is married now...

Many congratulations to Lehman ... we want a treat ...

Andy weds Sudha

2007-09-18T11:05:00.000+05:30

And another one bites the dust ... here's a picture of Andy and Sudha

Yours truly was in Bombay to attend the marriage of (as declared by the marriage hall notice board) Chi. Anand Krishnamurthy and Sou. Sudha (this notice board was promptly changed to "Sudha weds Anand" by Sudha's sister)

The wedding, like most Indian weddings, was steeped in rituals ... As both the bride and the groom were Tams ... it was steeped in Tam rituals.

When I entered the marriage hall (a day before the marriage date) Andy was already busy with pre-marriage rituals. He was dressed in a white (P Chitmabaram style) dhoti which, I was told, is called a "Veshthi". This dhoti is not to be confused with UP-Bihar dhoti which is wrapped with an edge running between the legs (possibly to prevent free peek shows) ... The "Veshthi" is elegently wrapped around the waist and covers from waist to ankles (I would refrain from giving paralells of "lungi" for the fear that my Tam friends might kill me for doing that).

Back to Andy's dress ... he was also wearing an "Angvastram" ... I am positively sure that the "Angvastram" was invented for the sole purpose of hiding hairy backs and overgrown tummies ... Though Andy didn't seem to need the white cloth drape for either of the two purposes - Like all good grooms (with Teja being the most amplified example of this pre-marriage phenominon) Andy seemed to have worked-out and (please note the clever pun) "toand-down" the bulging belly ... On the other front - Initially I feared that metrosexuality might have forced Andy to get a fully body wax done, but I was relieved to find (upon closer examination) that he had done no such idiotics ... Other interesting parts of the dress were a grass/fiber ring or knot that Andy wore throughout the rituals and a blindfold which was briefly put over Andy's eyes (I guess even the bravest cannot be expected to walk into the pitfall called marriage with open eyes ... in our parts of the country the blinding is done by a clever device called the "Sehra") ... I so sincerely hope that Afshan (my wife) never reads this blog

Anu (Andy's younger sis ... and for the purpose of record it must be mentioned that she was the most gracious hostess ... and that she looked gorgeous in all the various dresses that she wore throughout the wedding) explained the ceremonies to me - The morning had begun with a Puja after which the ladies of the house had a ceremony towards a blissful and happy married life for Andy (Pandakall) ... this was followed by symbolic feeding of the forefathers (Nandi) ... Now in all practicality, forefathers cannot be possibly fed, so 8-10 brahmins are fed instead ... and this is done by both the bride and the groom's families

The evening was reserved for formal engagement (Nichchiyadhratam) ... Sudha received gifts from Anu (Sis-in-law) and Andy got gifts from his BIL. There was a formal marriage declaration written on a parchment ... my guess is that its Tamil contents would have read something like " Let this be known that Andy is getting married to Sudha tomorrow the 7th September 2007 etc etc"

Marriage was scheduled for early Friday morning. Yours truly is a late riser so missed a couple of morning ceremonies ... the first one missed was the Mangalsnanam ... as the name suggest this is a ritual bath (it ensures that Groom takes bath at least once in his lifetime ... this might seem scary to some creatures who might have forgotten the ancient custom of taking baths during the blissfull days of hostel life ) ... Mangalsnanam was followed by the Kashi-Yatra ... Kashi-Yatra is the time when the groom has the rare attack of sanity and he tries to run away from the marriage ... ritually the bride's family cajole him back and he is quickly married off.

Actual marriage was the time when I entered the Kalyanmadapa. Andy was again wearing a dhoti ... this time it was worn in the UP-Bihar style (I wonder why) ... And it was me who was wearing the "Veshthi" ... Andy's mom had somehow managed to get all of Andy's friends and colleagues show up wearing "Veshthis" ( At that moment the marriage could have been mistaken for a mini-conclave of P chidambaram impersonators) ...
There was jaymala, Pheras, throwing of belssings in form of flowers and rice etc etc... within an hour Andy and Sudha were formally Man and Wife

After much celebrations (and touching of feet by the newly married couple) everyone went down to the basement for some Wholesome Tam Marriage Food served on banana-leaves. Infact I had eaten Wholesome Tam Marriage Food for breakfast, lunch and dinner the day before the marriage as well. This was good time for me to brush-up my eating-on-banana-leaf etiquettes ... thanks to Gourishanker and Ravi for helping me on this front ... for the uninitiated there is not much rocket science involved ... one just has to sprinkle the leaf with water and pretend to clean it with swipe of a hand ... then one has to just wait for the different dishes to arrive ... the people serving will automatically place things on the right parts of the leaf ... also one needs to know the art of managing flowing Sambhar and Rassam with rice ... a good advice is that you take Sambhar in a little well dug in the middle of the rice heap and avoid taking Rassam (or ask the guy to bring it in a cup) ... there is also some confusion regarding whether the leaf requires to be folded after one has had his full ... but this is hardly a problem ... I observed that most people did not fold the leaf after they were done and I guess there wouldn't be a serious breach of protocol if one just leaves the leaf as it is and walks off ...

Finally we had a reception on friday evening ... it was well attended and was a good time for catching up with IIMB batchmates ... lots of people were spotted at the reception - Gokhale (he had to be rescued from an uncle who worked in the paint industry), Nabar (getting married this December), Smruti and Shanu, Nitin Agarwal and Piyush Jain, Garga, Pansari, Dabas, God, Dola, Ganny ... Newly married couple of Pati and Payal looked wonderful together ... Pati, Shanu and Smruti were the only married people (apart from Andy) who had brought their spouses along. Veena had earlier attended the wedding ceremonies along with her hubby JB. After everyone had had their fill of delicious (non-tam) Veg food (which wasn't served on banana leaf) and after everyone had exchanged phone numbers/ latest gossip ... those afraid of their wives were the first ones to scoot off , they were closely followed by those who had office on Saturday ... this left a few intrepid ones who headed off to a 5-star watering-hole (sponsored by dola ... many thanks dude) ...

So that was the Andy weds Sudha story ... Here's wishing the best for the couple ... (who, by the way, are off to a trip of Italy) ..

IIMC thrashed in sports meet

2007-08-20T10:31:00.000+05:30

The story goes something like this - IIMB went to east coast to mince-meat IIMC in a sports meet.

As a background - IIMC produced this slick foot-in-mouth video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9Sz8u4GcX0

In reply IIMB had the last laugh when its Intranet (spidi) hosted the following post-event-report (we all remember Sista don't we)

Samhar '07: The Story of Destruction Narrators: Vikrant Behl, Dipak Krishnamani, Suren Sista
Hello Everyone, With the soldiers having made a triumphant return from the battlefield in the Far-east, and the inaugural Samhar trophy now in our proud possession, it is time to reflect back on the story of Samhar, which was nothing less than a massacre of IIMC.

IIM Calcutta made the prodigal mistake of imprinting a foot-in-the-mouth tagline on their T-Shirts; Something that we had learnt not to do, the hard way at Sangharsh (IIMA-IIMB Sports Meet, and not IIMB-IIMA Sports Meet! :)) last year. “And we thought there could B no one worse than XL”, they claimed, followed (hilariously, if one may add) by the answer below that read “IIM Calcutta”.

Wanna More??

We had all heard, and speculated, about the apparently strong sporting culture at IIMC, and that nothing less than a tough fight that awaited us. Sadly though, the IIMC folks seemed to have spent all their energy uploading shabby videos on internet sites, and training their girls to shout obscenities at us. Wish they had spent half that time practicing some of the sports that they eventually decided to compete in, leave alone the ones that they feared to enter the field for!

The final scoreline of 7-4 does not reveal how one-sided the competition was in our favour. It would have revealed so, had the rain gods been kinder, and Cricket and Throwball not been washed out, and had the hosts learnt to play on a proper snooker table, or not been petrified looking at our boys practising Tsepak at their home court, eventually leading to canceling of these 4 sports. All in all a much more commanding scoreline was always on the cards.

‘But what really happened?’ Well the answer to that question is a long-winded one. So gather around as this storyteller narrates a fascinating tale. Here is how it all unfolded:

The Welcome:

Late on Friday night, Amit Kamble (IIMC Sports Secretary) and a few other students came to receive us at the airport. After a 4-hour flight (no food served, if it may be said) coupled with the humid weather of Kolkata welcomed us with open arm-pits… err arms. A couple of hour’s bus ride from the airport, and we finally arrived at the campus, to the “pleasant and welcoming” chants of slogans, and loud drums by a huge crowd awaiting us at the entrance of their ‘Old Hostel’. After much ‘hospitality’ shown by the home crowd, we were finally let inside the hostel mess for some badly needed refreshments, which we feasted on big time. After a bit of delay, we were escorted to the common rooms where we were put up. The rooms were spacious and reasonably comfortable, and IIMC had played their part as decent hosts. A meeting of captains of all sports followed, to sort out issues, rules and other related stuff, and finalise the schedule for the weekend; with the captains and Sports Secretaries managing to get some rest only post three in the morning! The energy at the campus was palpable, and the action was right around the corner!

DAY 1: SATURDAY

The rain gods played spoil sport with some late morning showers that led to a delayed start for various events lined up for that day. Thankfully, by noon the skies cleared up and the action finally went underway with Lawn Tennis, after Snooker was put on hold due to non-availability of a proper snooker table.

Lawn Tennis:

The IIMB team could not have asked for a better start to the Sports Meet, with our Sports Secy., taking the matter in his own hands from the very first match, and doing that with some sublime play that left the hapless IIMC player running all over the court. The 6-2, 6-1 victory ensured that Nishant nicely ‘warmed up’ to the task for the bigger tasks ahead.

The 2^nd match featured our very own Suren Sista competing with the best player of the rival team. Although Sista lost to Pratyush alias Kutty, he made him fight for every point, creating a huge female fan following in the process that was falling all over the place to catch a glimpse of him!

With the scored tied at 1-1, the doubles encounter was always going to be a crucial one for both teams. In came the 6’4” daunting figure of Hardeep Singh Guru, who created a stir as soon as he entered the court with some booming serves that sent shivers down the opponents’ spine. Together with some elegant net play from Sista, the duo closed out encounter in straight sets, setting the stage for Nishant to show them how it is done.

Kutty may have been the best IIMC could manage, but that was only till he ran into a wall called Nishant Gupta in the 4^th match. And we all know that there is only one winner when you play a wall. Kutty kept on sending balls to the other side only to see them coming right back with double the force. Nishant raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set, and never looked back. Despite some hiccups in the latter half of the first set, he closed out the match in straight sets, after having decided not to subject the IIMC “champ” to further torture! The Tennis event had been won and we were on the board. 1-0 to IIMB!

Badminton (Girls):

The Girls Badminton event started in parallel with the last two matches of Lawn Tennis. The crowd got split between the two events rather inequitably in favour of the former. Despite coming to play after an exhaustive journey, the Awesome Twosome of Super Sireesha and Stylish Saumya ran all over the disgruntled rivals. Sweltering heat, foul-mouthed girls, and an uncouth crowd could not stop our girls from winning the event with relative ease, and setting the path for what was in store for IIMC.

In the first match of the tie, Sireesha, playing IIMC’s no.1 Mridula, set the stage on fire by breaking into a 7-1 lead in the first game. Just when it seemed that it was going to be yet another one of her crushing victories, Sireesha allowed her opponent to come back and take the first game 15-11. However, it was as far as Mridula could manage as Sireesha trampled all over her in the next two games to claim the match in style.

The match also witnessed a mini brawl in the middle when our Cat-woman Nidhi Gupta, who after being provoked by the ‘anti-cheering’ IIMC squad, decided to take the matter in her own hands, and quite literally so! The damage was done where it mattered, on the opponents’ psyche!

Next up was Saumya. After the high pressured, tense moment-filled first match, Saumya’s match was on the other extreme of the scale, a complete contradiction, and an absolute pleasure to watch for an IIMB supporter. Her class came through, as she played her dominating best, smiling away to an easy victory and in the process, sealing the Girls Baddy event for IIMB. 2-0 to IIMB!

Volleyball:

If there was one event that can be said to have left a huge dent in the IIMC morale, it must be Volleyball. Endless hours of practice spent by Tonmoy and Co. bore fruit when the IIMB team played a near flawless game at the rain-plagued Volleyball court. The game was an absolute eye-candy for the huge bunch of spectators, who were treated to some straight-out-of-the-textbook play by our heroes.

There were absolute no answers to the near-perfect spiking by Manas Sahoo (PGSEM), who sent one missile after another into the opponents’ terrain. If that was not enough, Yadav displayed an equally spotless show, with power-packed punches, and deft touches from the net that left the entire IIMC lot mesmerized. It was a team performance we are proud of!

Victory in straight-sets meant that the scoreline read 3-0 to IIMB, with more demolition in the pipeline for the hosts. It also meant that before dinner on day 1, they were looking at a never-before situation of a big deficit... in short, they were ready to snap!

Basketball (Girls):

Arguably, the fate of Samhar 2007 was decided by this memorable performance displayed by our Girls Basketball team. Purely going by the average height or weight of the two teams, no one would have given our girls a chance. But our ‘5-feet-someones’ displayed steely resolve, relentless stamina, and exemplary grit to overcome all their “shortcomings” to register probably the finest moment of the Sports Meet.

Led from the front by Nupur Kalgaonkar, the “Girl from Kolhapur”, the team had a clear mission: don’t let the ball reach the opponents. They snatched at the ball, jumped in unison (sometimes did it in synchronization), elbowed the opponents, and did a lot more than what had been seen on a Basketball court before, and, importantly, never gave possession of the ball. In between all the drama, Anjali scored from a free throw to take an early lead in the match, and the score after 2 quarters was 1-0. Anjali found the basket on two other occasions but unfortunately the referee on account of ‘traveling’ disallowed those. Another free throw in our favour, and a freak moment of weak defending made the score 2-2 at the end of the 3^rd quarter, with everything to play for.

The 4^th quarter had some heart-stopping moments but nothing to add to the score. Just when the spectators were getting ready to go into extra time with only 28 seconds to go on the clock, the ‘oh-not-so-shy’ Sharmili Phulgirkar somehow stole the ball from the opponents, raced towards the basket, defied all odds, and actually put the damn thing in the basket, a feat she never achieved during any of the practice sessions!

A special mention for Nidhi Gupta, who repeated her Girls Baddy performance yet again but only this time, she did it where it mattered most - On Court. Her defence was impeccable, and whomever she marked visibly felt awfully stifled! The IIMC girls had already got a taste of her medicine so no one dared act smart with her this time, and when someone did, Nidhi ensured that she got more than a mouthful in return! (The match was also memorable for the celebrations after every basket, which reminded one of that after goals scored at footer matches!)

The Chak De IIMB squad had done it, and did it in some awesome style!

Scoreline: 4-0 to IIMB, and IIMC, players and support was all but set to go home.

Basketball (Boys):

Playing against a talented, full-strength IIMC team, and two referees, our boys put up a fantabulous show at the floodlit IIMC Basketball court.

We made a not-so-good start, and trailed by 6 points at the end of the 1^st Quarter, and for once in the whole day, IIMC seemed to let out a collective sigh of relief – their cheering got louder, and as usual, very foul; not that we held back when the opportunity came our way.

At the beginning of the 2^nd Quarter, in came Lama, and the tide of the match appeared to turn. Together with some consistent play from Shireesh Johari, and a bagful of baskets from Pranay Shetty, we came closer inch-by-inch, and finished the 3^rd Quarter tied at 20 apiece.

However, the class of the IIMC team showed up yet again, as they raced to an 8 Point lead early into the 4^th Quarter. Our boys fought back hard, and came within two points of our opponents. One basket would have sealed it for extra-time. But it was not to be.

Fate had it written that Pranay Shetty’s amazing snatch, run and lay up, circled the rim of the basket twice, and in a most heartbreakingly dramatic moment, fell outside the basket. The referee’s refusal to see fouls committed against us, and see non-existent fouls by us, sealed our fate.

That the opposition captain actually said to ours that he could not believe the referee did not see some of those are testament enough. Our boys went down fighting. IIMC had salvaged some pride, and were for the first time in the day on the board. Score 4-1, to IIMB.

Table Tennis (Boys):

The buzzword was that our team would always start this event as the underdogs. Hradayesh started off well as he took the first match against a stroke-less wonder from IIMC. He then teamed up with Kandarp for the Doubles tie, but began well below par. A great fight-back to tie the score at 3-3 wasn’t good enough to win the final set. Vetri then lost his Singles encounter to Pratyush (of the Tennis fame) who was backed by a vociferous crowd in a reverberating closed court. In the next match, he teamed up with Sid, and they looked good in parts. However, thanks to a barrage of unforced errors on their part, and some consistent play from the IIMC team, Table Tennis went out of our grasp.

It is one sport that continues to elude us. Come Sangharsh, and we hope to remove that jinx once and for all, and make it our strong point once again as it was a couple of years ago. By now IIMC was looking good, with the scoreboard reading a very respectable 4-2, though still in our favour.

Carrom:

The good news from the Carrom room was that we were sitting and playing, which was a task in itself. Phew!! Why do we say this? Ok, snatches from a conversation between Ravi, our Carrom Captain, and the IIMC Carrom Captain

IIMC: Hi, we have a standing arrangement for Carrom.

Ravi: Ok... (Thinking: Man! These guys use heavy terms ... ‘Standing Arrangement’!)

IIMC: (repeats) We have a standing arrangement for Carrom.

Ravi: (curious by now) So, what is the standing arrangement?

IIMC: (We presume innocently) We stand, and play.

(Ravi ROTFL)

We started with the first Men’s Singles, and all eyes were on ‘Captain’ Ravishankar to give us a flying start. The IIMC champ Aditya raced to a massive 17-0 early lead only to Ravi fight back winning 2 back-to-back boards to wrest back the lead at 19-17. Aditya then pulled it back, and closed out the match 29-27, a huge setback for the IIMB team to see their Captain go down in the first match. The match was a gem with both players playing the best they ever have. The result was a huge blow to our support team that was witnessing the loss at TT (Boys), with a possible 4-3 EOD scoreline.

The word doing the rounds at IIMC was that Nithya is a district level player, and the way they feared her was quite evident. The mind games for the 2^nd match were already won. Nithya, for her part, district level player or not, kept her cool, and simply outplayed, outwitted and outclassed the opponent by a considerable margin, displaying an array of well-crafted shots to all corners of the board.

The 3^rd match featured arguably the 2 best players on the day when Karthikeyan Raman clashed with Siddharth from IIMC. Though RK took an early lead, it was a seesaw battle with some sublime play by both players, fighting for each extra point. With a scoreline of 21-20 in favour of IIMC, it was anyone’s match and there was nothing to choose between the two players. Until RK decided to play a ‘God-level’ board that left the audience stunned to say the least. With 7 coins on the board to opponent’s 4 coins, RK put 2 easy coins, neatly cut 2 coins from the opponent’s base into the left pocket, rebounded and pocketed a coin on the right, centre cut the queen and covered with a rebound and pulled back his last coin from the base: ALL IN ONE TURN! Finishing the board with his next shot, RK, usually the quiet types even on the Cricket field (remember Bjorn Borg? Well… not as stone faced, but quiet nevertheless), showed signs of emotion, punching the air in elation, and giving a stare to the arbit guys who tried hard to distract him during the game. Siddharth did not know what hit him; walked up to RK to congratulate him. It is only fair to say that in this match, there were no losers, only winners!

The Men’s Doubles match was a no-show, with Jidesh and Vikrant being crushed by the 2 best IIMC players. Though it can be said that it was good strategizing to allow Ravi to partner Nithya in the final match, nothing can be taken away from our duo for coming up with an abysmal performance.

With 2 matches-a-piece, and the overall tally at 4-2, there were a few jitters in the IIMB camp, and a lot of hope for IIMC. This next Carrom match would decide if we went into the second day with a comfortable lead, or if IIMC would hold the edge of having pulled it back from 4-0 to one short. But the way Ravi and Nithya played this final match there was little chance we could lose. They had it easy in the Mixed Doubles match, winning quite comfortably (the scorecard read 29-0, for the record), ending the day on a satisfying note, and the overall tally at 5-2 in our favour.

Cricket:

A bright blue sky, a lush green outfield and with a good toss won, IIMB piled on the runs after a swashbuckling start. The bowlers were in form too as they dismissed the IIMC team for a paltry total to go 6-2 up in Samhar.

This was exactly what our opponents feared would happen if the Cricket match took place. The IIMB team’s exploits at the club level in Bangalore had sent shivers down the spines of IIMC. Our team’s performance at last year’s Sangharsh (IIMA) and Sangram (IIMK) events meant that IIMC had received reports about us being a disciplined, well-knit side, and one that would take some effort to beat. We are rumored to have three Ranji players in the team (What!? Who!? Where!?). From their sources at IIMA, IIMC had come to know that we possess a fearsome attacking batsman, and a lively pace bowler from our FPM program; interesting ‘facts’ about our Cricket team that we were not aware of! The captain of our opposition team in a discussion also let out that, had the match taken place, he believed they would have come out a cropper. Little wonder then that our captain (who may have been the said FPM player) was full of smiles even though he did not get to add another feat to the team chest.

The ground had not been prepared for the match and unfortunately, the only thing lush green about it was the pitch itself (4 inches of grass on a soft wicket!). The match was a non-starter, and the Cricket team was left disappointed. Our Cricket kits; like the guitars of “Phootage and Co.”; had the distinction of returning unused. That the rain may have anyway ruined the game was a different matter altogether. The score sheet still 5-2 in our favour.

Chess:

For a non-cheering sport, Chess turned out to be one of the most fascinating events to watch for the small audience. With a 3-Player round-robin format, it was as nail biting as any other event.

After the 1^st Round, IIMB led 2-1 after Bhanu (PGSEM) and Shrikant (FPM) won their respective matches from the round. The 2^nd Round saw the IIMC folks bounce back by winning 2 boards, taking the overall score to 3-3, and the stage set for the 3^rd and Final Round to decide the event.

As everyone had expected, Bhanu; a champion chess player during his younger days in AP; made quick work of his opponent, and recorded a rather comfortable win while Shrikant went down fighting on the last board to some impressive play. With scores tied at 4-4, all eyes were on the final match between IIMC’s best player, and our No. 3 Anand Gautham. Anand had lost both his previous matches, and the IIMC team clearly had an edge, as was evident in the body language of the IIMB supporters. It was always going to be an uphill task for Anand to hold on to that match.

But as they say, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Anand pulled out a masterstroke from his bag, and was on the verge of emerging victorious from the match, and the thus-far subdued IIMB supporters, were ready to pop the champagne. But, with barely 3 seconds to go on his clock, the opponent somehow pushed Anand’s King to a corner and drew the match on the virtue of a stalemate. The room was stunned into silence, and much-deserved victory eluded us, but all was not lost, as the teams were tied at 4.5 points a-piece.

To decide the tiebreaker, a 5-minute blitz game (called ‘Armageddon’) was played between nominated players from both sides. There was no doubt as to who was going to represent IIMB. Bhanu, having won all his 3 boards, had scared the hell out of the opponents by flawless play all the way; that he was the best on display was evident from the way he played his first three rounds. Bhanu not only played his board, but also knew what was happening on the other boards – after a particular match on the next board got completed, and with his own clock running down, he took the next board’s game back by five moves (he remembered all moves!), and showed what could have been done for a checkmate!

As per the rules of ‘Armegeddon’, Bhanu playing with white pieces, and with one extra minute on the clock, had to win the game, while the opponent had to just draw the game to win. Bhanu, playing Armegeddon for the first time in his life (surprisingly, for he has played over 160 competitive ‘ranking’ tournaments!), played a classical timed-game, running down the opponent on his clock, and sealing victory. The crowd in the room burst out in celebrations, and marked their entry into the Girls Table Tennis event announcing the scoreline of 6-2 in our favour.

Table Tennis (Girls):

“6-2” was what was on everyone’s lips as a 30-strong IIMB group marched into the TT room when the first match was just about to get underway.

Sireesha lost the first set, and had all but lost the match in the 2^nd set when some lightning level stuff struck her as she got back at the opponent saving 7 match points, and then going on to claim the set 23-21. Building on the momentum, Sireesha packed the first match with some delightful display of Ping-Pong, leaving the opponent gasping for breath at every point.

However, in the 2^nd match, Sireesha teamed up with Diksha, only to find their opponents a little too well rounded for their liking. They lost the Doubles, and subsequently Diksha lost the final Singles, and TT remained a black-mark in the IIMB portfolio.

While IIMC gained a point on the overall score-sheet, what emerged more prominently from the event was the proficiency in the usage expletives by the womenfolk of IIMC. Score 6-3 in IIMB’s favour.

Football:

For those who thought they had seen it all, there was some serious re-thinking in store! We had just hit the tip of the iceberg.

IIMC’s football team had said, nay announced, that Samhar trophy or not, footer was one event they would not lose. It was their pride, and they were going to keep it that way. Little did they know that our footer team had had its share of losing (remember IIMA last year), and have avowed since to never slack on commitment, and to give it all. This was the backdrop to what came next, so buckle-up for a Football match that can only be described as pulsating!

A swamp made an apology for the footer pitch, but this did not deter either team from going headlong into the slush amidst an incessant heavy drizzle. The ball barely made it across the turf as IIMC began menacingly, attacking relentlessly to heavy cheering for their team, and heavier anti-cheering for Lama, our goalkeeper. However, veterans Sid and Nishant made an excellent double play, and even as it unfolded in front of our eyes, IIMB went 1-0 up within the first 10 minutes with a sweet left-footer from Nishant sliding across the helpless goalkeeper into the center of the net from the left flank. Every member of the contingent on the sidelines went into ruptures at this early lead, and the stunned IIMC supporters visibly had ‘that-sinking-feeling’ all over again.

Sid was brilliant throughout, and after being pushed by the opponents, repeatedly took face full of muck that was the black clay that made the ground, never once flinching, and carried on regardless – showing that he was a truly a soldiers son. Nishant, for his part, emerged as the god of goals. However, the biggest praise must certainly go to the Goalkeeper Lama, and his defense squad, both on and off the field! On field, though the ever-reliable services of Srijith Mohanan were missed, it was the fearsome foursome of Daga, Shekhawat, Aveek, and Anuj that stood like a wall, one that proved to be unbreakable through the match, and Lama was at his absolute impenetrable best. On top of that, solid midfield play by Senthil, Tenzing, and Francis ensured that the ball supply to the forwards never stopped, and the pressure continued to mount on the IIMC goal, despite them having a higher ball possession, and more strikes on goal.

The sledging reached its absolute zenith during the second half as a large IIMB contingent, led by the “Master-Abuse-Innovator” Vikrant, ably supported by Chakro (who thanked his stars for not having had to bowl that morning). They took up the dirty IIMC challenge just behind our goal post, and silenced the otherwise deafening IIMC girls. Even at our liberal best, the Sports Council cannot allow one to mention any of the expletives exchanged during the course of the match, especially those mentioned by the opposing team’s women.

In all this there was still a match being played in the middle. The two halves were each to be 30 minutes long. But after the first half ended in about 35 minutes, the second seemed to enter this unending time warp! The referee on being asked about the time started walking away from our players! Had Nishant not pounded the final nail in the opponents coffin with a smart goal that warmed every soul’s heart in IIMB, the match would have gone on indefinitely till such time that IIMC scored the winning goal! Anyways, after 45 grueling minutes of a 30-minute half, the referee could no longer continue without shame, and blew the final whistle. Sista’s air-horn was a huge hit with loud noises following every good move by the IIMB team. 2-0 at footer, 7-3 at the overall tally, and the trophy rested deep in our pockets.

Badminton (Boys):

This was one event everyone believed should easily have been ours. With regulars like Sista and Nishant warming the bench, one thought that we would trample all over our opponents. The “Rockstar of the Day” Sagar got himself some valuable practice in the first game before making his opponent dance in the second to give IIMB a 1-0 lead. Sagar, with his super-quick reflexes, and incomparable court coverage is believed to be better than Amit Gupta (Alumnus, Class of 2007, and destroyer-in-chief of anything with a racquet on the other side of the badminton net), but we doubt one can ever find out.

In the second match Praneet Chawla never seemed to find his touch against his opponent, and despite multiple promises of a comeback, he went down in 3 games, after having led in the crucial third game 6-1, only to give it away and trail at 6-13. One was often reminded of the legendary match he won from the brink of defeat at Sangram (IIMB-IIMK Sports Meet) last year, but this time, it was not to be. Having seen Praneet fight it out and win from the brink in some memorable matches, it is only fair to say that he was far from his best on the day. By his own reckoning he was clearly ‘not there’.

Sagar teamed up with Sahil Barua to take the 3^rd tie (Doubles) with ease and give IIMB a 2-1 lead. Barua then looked to take IIMB through with a victory in the third Singles, but that was not to be. A poor second set, along with a number of errors, saw him go down to Pratyush (yes, Tennis, TT and now this), to set up an exciting final Doubles clash.

The tie, however, was far from exciting, as Praneet, teaming up with Rajat, gave IIMC the final cheer with an unbelievable number of unforced errors and missed serves, and returns. It was a sub-par performance by any standards, and an event that was clearly ours was lost. The final result was a 7-4 victory to IIMB at Samhar’07.

The Climax:

The most exciting part of the Badminton event had nothing to do with the players. In the middle of Barua’s Singles tie, there was a temporary power cut that lasted a good half hour. Tired of having thrashed the IIMC contingent on the field, IIM Bangalore decided to have some fun of its own. Out came a poster reading “Now can you C what’s worse than XL?” in retaliation to their T-Shirt message.

Vikrant was at his abusive best yet again, swearing left, right and center (into mid-air at times), and his eyes popping out with every word! To continue with that, another provocative poster came out from the IIMB contingent, and that was that. War broke out. Both teams reached out each others throats, the Badminton net serving as an apology for a Lakshmanrekha. The few gutsy IIMC students that dared to venture into the IIMB half were immediately mobbed by a huge crowd screaming, “Loser, Loser” into their ear and bringing tears to their eyes. One thanks one’s lucky stars that the incident stopped short of fistfights (the few that began were either ignored or immediately squashed).

The icing on the cake was when a skimpily clad IIMC lady dared to grab the collar of our dear old Georgy! She let out her inimitable shriek, and the attacker was thrown back a few feet. That was enough for the mob to pull them apart. How the battle ended, one cannot recall (things moved too fast), but end it did, and the game continued. If you weren’t on the Baddy court during the power cut, you really weren’t a part of Samhar. Hopefully, atleast one of our daring cameramen has got some interesting footage to share.

All in all, Samhar was ours from start to finish. As Sid aptly put it in an attempted funny speech at the end, “We truly destroyed them!” The various battles, and the subsequent victories, shall definitely be remembered, but so will the extent of foul language and unacceptable behaviour on part of the hosts (particularly the women) that unfolded over that weekend. We have been given the unenviable task to not only play better hosts next year, but also to teach our to-be-guests the norms of social behaviour!

The Musical Night:

After a grueling sporting schedule that stretched into the wee hours of the morning on Saturday, and continued till late Sunday, it was what all of us were waiting for to unwind: the performance by the Musical Bands from both institutes with the lovely party thrown for us by the hosts as the backdrop. Unfortunately, rain played spoilsport yet again, depriving us of the performances by “Phootage” and “IIMC Rockstars”.

It was then the turn of the DJ to take center stage, and the party got rolling in earnest, with some much-needed ‘liquids’, and foot-tapping numbers. IIMC played perfect hosts by making elaborate arrangements for the same, and taking extra pains to ensure that all of us had a gala time at the party.

It was a perfect icing on the cake for the Sports Meet, and ensured a more amicable atmosphere to meet old friends and new from the other campus before coming back. It was heartening to see groups from both institutes dancing together (who would have imagined that after all that had happened through the two days!) and joining in each other’s rituals. The message was loud and clear: Play hard against on the field and party harder together off the field.

On behalf of the IIMB contingent and the entire student community, we wish to thank the IIMC President, the Sports Secretary and each and every IIMC student to have contributed in making our stay an extremely memorable one.

Epilogue

Incidents that surely demand the tag of “The Best of Samhar ’07”

1. During the described Battle at the Baddy Court, the IIMB team began a taunt “Kolkata ki Kaise Phati?” And ‘Paaaaaaaaan’ went the dying air-horn. Again, “Kolkata ki Kaise Phati?” Paaaaaaaaaan… And again, till the air-horn actually died… Hilarious! the larger IIMC support contingent was left dumbfound!

2. Over-heard in the corridor at the end of Day1 (IIMB leads 5-2):

IIMC guy1: Tu cheer karne kyun nahin aaya?

IIMC guy2: Yaar, Monday submission ke liye kaam kar raha tha… kal pukka aaunga

IIMC guy1: Kal kya @#$% marane aayega? Lag chuki hai apni!

3. The IIMC President (Dhameeja), half in disgust, half in self pity, saying to one of the narrators before we boarded the bus: “Hamari preparation? Jo bhi kiya who tha is (pointing to an old heavy truck tyre near their lake) 300 kilo ke bojh ko uthane ki competition… aur usme ladkiyon ki gaali ki practise…” NO WONDER!

4. An inebriated Vikrant Bahl reeled off what he claims to be his 4 best and most innovative phrases (obviously, we aren’t mentioning them!) during the meet. Be sure to contact him about them! That this incident may have failed his memory, thanks to the state he was in, is a different matter altogether, but there were enough people on the bus that morning to recall the golden words.

P.S: All personal comments on any individual are meant to be that way, and are totally intentional!!

P.P.S: A heartfelt thanks to all alumni who; by not severing their umbilical cords; continue to support us, whether by following our exploits over SPIDI and Bracket, or by turning up for events at these far-flung corners of the country. A special mention for our co-narrator (and ex- Sports Secretary) Dipak Krishnamani, Muthu Mohon (the ex-ex-Sports Secretary), Arvind Rayappa (ex-Sports Council member), Anand Venkatesan, Abhishek Anand, Jeevesh Jain who turned up for the two days of Samhar’07!

Rajiv Rangarajan Getting Married

2007-08-16T11:32:00.000+05:30

Folks this is the invite. It was sent to secA mailing list, I am taking the liberty of posting it on the batch's blog

Hey Guys,

It gives me pleasure to invite all of you to my wedding. The function is in Chennai on the 22nd and 23rd (attchd details in invite) . My fiance Purnima is fron Chennai too and currently works as an HR consultant. We got engaged earlier this year after a few months of courtship !

It would be great if you could attend the function. Since it happens to be in the middle of the week(wed and thurs) you could either attend the reception(evening) or the traditional wedding. Sorry for the short notice but hope to see you there !

Cheers,
Rajiv

Baby Girl for Nitin Agarwal and Kanupriya

2007-08-12T16:36:00.000+05:30

Here's what nanga's mail read

Dear Friends,
We were blessed with a girl "Ishita" on 9th July,
2007. Attached are some of her photos. Both the mother
(Kanupriya) and the baby (Ishita) are doing fine.

Thanks
Nitin Agarwal
9323318909

IIMB Class of 2004 says -
Congratulations to Nitin and Kanupriya and loads of love to Ishita.

Nostalgia

2007-08-09T18:43:00.000+05:30

Thanks to Vijay Borkar for bringing this to my attention!

P.S: the smart looking guy in the striped red t-shirt (who always has his back to the camera) is me :-)

Buddy-Daddy

2007-07-27T12:01:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I got this message on my Mobile

"We have been blessed with a baby girl. We will call her Mannat. Amit Arora(Buddy)"

Good News ... Many Congratulations to Buddy ... This calls for a party (especially since we didn't get one on his marriage).

Also, the news might put an end to the speculations that Buddy never got married at all (Since no one has seen Mrs Amit Arora, many tended to suggest that Buddy had not married at all and the marriage was a fancy story that Buddy was spreading about)

I earnestly call out to all those who have met Mrs Amit Arora to be a good sport and leave a (non-anonymous) comment testifying to her existence.

Lots of love and best wishes to Mannat

Consulting redefined

2007-07-06T11:16:00.000+05:30

Uncle says this consulting firm is too good.

Check out their website - their ideas, strategies and solutions are worth emulating.

If you want to work for this company send your resume to uncle.

here's the link - http://www.huhcorp.com

Posted by alam on behalf of uncle

Status check?

2007-07-03T01:23:00.000+05:30

Guys and girls,

Its been slightly more than three years since we all left the illustrious batch of 2004. What about a quick status check on the whereabouts of the people in our batch? Who has moved on across different firms? Who is the most stable? Who has started up?

Some trivia that I thought could be interesting -
1) Max changes so far - Puni Maruti (5th job currently)
2) Start ups so far - 8? (Subodh, Veena, Ravipratap, Alam, Mahendru, Arjun, Nava, K2??)
3) Mode of job no. for most of our batch (based on a totally unscientific sample set) - 3
4)# of people still with employer from campus - ?? (my hypothesis would be <10% - in fact I can count Vidya, Ashgo, the ATK junta less Mragank, the Temasek duo, Sood, Ranga, Puneet Agarwal, Kholu, Rahul Das, Shani, Gangrade, Mutha, Keku - which is already pretty close to 10%)
5) City with max. strength of 2004 batch - Mumbai
6) Most favored sector - ?? (no clue, my guess would be Finance / Banking, close runner up IT)
7) Most unknown status - Harsh Lehman

I wonder how these statistics could be made more meaningful / accurate. Updating the database on the yahoogroup could be one way out, although I found it did not work for my IIT batch group. Any ideas??

G aur V ki Shaadi

2007-06-18T18:41:00.000+05:30

As per Tanweer's instructions , here is a aankon dekha haal of Gayatri and Vishesh's wedding

The wedding was an afternoon affair at Tivoli Garden's near Chatarpur mandir. I, in fact, was one of the early arrivals - reached there by 12, guess just could not wait for the good food. The guest started to trickle in by around 12.30 and baraat arrived in a bus sometime around 1. Vishesh himself arrived in a neatly decorated car ( no horse riding or band baja was possible in that heat).He was looking great in his white sherwani and red duppatta equivalent for guys ( I don't know what is the right term for that duppatta..??).

Yours truly was given the onerous task of co-ordinating with the DJ to make sure right kind of welcome music is played as and when the bride and groom arrives, and also signal the bride to start for the wedding hall once the groom is settled (now I can brag to their kids that had it been not for me the wedding would not have happened..;)...). Anyways, so once Vishesh was settled Gayatri was brought in by her friends to the hall. She was looking absolutely gorgeous in traditional south Indian wedding dress. This was followed by Jaymaal where Vishesh had to attempt three times before he could successfully garland G. As usual the photographers had their say and we got to see some action replays of the act. The feeras happened pretty soon after that and the wedding was over by 4 in the afternoon. Must say that they make a splendid couple and I hope they have a blissful married life. (And oh yes the food was awesome but there were no gulab jamuns..:(..).

The batch attendance at this wedding was far better than the alumni meet, the attendees included - Uncle and Garima, Mringi and Nikki, Kholu, Meen and Kholu Jr. , Nishant Kapoor, Gurani, Mahendru, Groovy and Amit ML Gupta. It was great catching up with out of towners especially with Guptaji - who had some very interesting I-banking stories to tell.Groovy is currently working for the CEO (Middle-East) of the world's biggest energy company - AES and is based out of Dubai.And Nishant Kapoor is enjoying his time at Accenture.

But the star of the day was Kholu Jr. a.k.a munchy, the dude with his penetrating eyes and close cropped hairstyle is going to be one lady-killer. Moreover, he is being trained early in his life where his water is carried in a Smirnoff flask which he drinks off shot glasses - so ladies of 2027 brace yourself beacuse Munchy is gonna set town on fire!!

Kalyan ho

2007-06-08T20:42:00.000+05:30

Vishesh Samachaar - Dude is marrying Dudette ... soon Vishesh can legally call out "... ae G sunti ho ..."

here's a reproduce of the invite (with details of "Kalyan Mandapa")

Dear friends,

It's been a long time coming, but the wait has been worth the while :-)

After 4+ years of courtship, Gayatri and I have decided to bring closure to a relationship which had its genesis in the highrises of Tokyo and the portals of L-square, which was compromised by crazy schedules, geographical distances, conflicting career demands, multiple disagreements, mismatched movie preferences(!!) and yet which survived, thrived and strengthened with time.

We are getting married on Sunday, the 10th of June 2007, in Delhi, and it would give us immense pleasure to have each one of you present for the occasion.

Program details are as follows:
Saturday 9th June: Drinks, dinner and dance from 8 pm onwards at the Badkhal Tourist Resort, Faridabad
Sunday 10th June: Lunch and phere at 1pm at the Tivoli Gardens Banquet Hall, Chattarpur Mandir Road, Delhi

Please do let us know your travel plans so that we can make arrangements for your stay, if required.

Hope to see you for the wedding,
Regards,
Gayatri, Vishesh

Anusmaran 2007 - Mumbai !!!

2007-05-27T09:41:00.000+05:30

This piece is about the Anusmaran 07 happenings in Mumbai reported by your humble reporter Amit Gokhale for Alam News !!!!! ;-)

Anusmaran this year was held at the Taj President Hotel in Cuffe Parade !!!.. Quite literally one end of town, but was a good place nevertheless... decent-sized hall and plus a lobby outside and a different hall for dinner. For once in Mumbai, space was not a constraint !!

I walked in at around 7.45 pm to see, as expected, a pretty empty hall. Still felt great to see some batchmates at that early hour as well. Spotted first were Dabas ,Andy Krishnamurthy, God (Maruti Srinivas Kumar). The met our junior Nikhil Gurjar who went on about his globe trotting ways (fancy any IIM grad landing in Venezuela :-))..Slowly but surely, the crowd started trickling in. By around 8.30 pm, people were pretty much in place. Prof. Ashok Thampy was in attendance, and took us through a standard PPT about whats going on at the Institute. Interestingly, there was no mention of 'quota','OBC' etc in the entire PPT and absolutely no CP, unlike in Chennai. On an interesting note for Supply Chain and Operations proffessionals like me, IIMB has started a centre for Supply Chain Management headed by Prof. Janat Shah. Do login to the site for more details. Then, as at other places, a recorded by speech by Prof. Apte and the alumni chairperson (Mr. Basu, was it ?) followed. As is to be expected, during these speeches, the action was happening more at the bar at the other end of the hall ;-))..

There was quite a decent turnout from our batch. Besides Dabas and Andy, the list of attendees includes (in no specific order): XL Goel *(roll. no. 1 as always:), Amit Garga *, Ameya Shenoy *, Ganny, Nitin Agarwal, Govind Agarwal, Pansari*, Sacheendran*, Kiran Agarwal, Prom, G, Indrani, KC, Pati, Dola Kumar, Shanky, Shirish Shenoy, KK, AKG and many more (apologies to those whom I may not have mentioned). Infact, the turnout was much better than last time inspite of the Anusmaran announcement and the venue information reaching people quite late in the day. (Note: the * against the name indicates people who had come with their better halves, I too belong to the list).

Then, the chit-chat happened. Felt good to hear the latest about friends, many of whom were meeting each other for the first time since campus. Our very own Abhishek 'crib' Pati is soon to find a patni of his own. Hopefully the cribs will come down !!!.. XL was spotted constantly sneaking out of the hall for a puff in order to escape the gaze of his wife ;-)... but, as they say, you are never far from your wife's roving eye and poor soul was almost caught once.. We tried calling Alam then, but did not get through. And speaking of wives, they had formed their own small group and were chatting away like long-lost friends much to the relief of their husbands, who could quietly sneak away to the bar for the next peg or meet up with other ladies ;-).. Most of the guys would now be in their 3rd job since campus !! I was amongst the very small minority who are still loyally serving their campus recruiters (in fact, I was met with disbelieving looks on telling people that I am still with Asian Paints :).

By around 9.30 pm the bar was overflowing with enthusiasts wanting their Smirnoff, Beer, Whisky (dont remember which brand since I stuck to Smirnoff) or just plain Coke. Also, the dance floor was open by then. But naturally, a mini L^2 started. Some of today's chart-busters and the smash hits of our times combined to create, once more, the Saturday night atmosphere. The highlight of the dance floor was, undoubtedly, our beloved 'Maaeri' (Euphoria) wherein everyone instinctively sat around in circles as if in a trance (much to amusement of the wives ;-).. All in all, felt great to jive one more time in the company of near and dear ones.
This went on much until midnight (again, in contrast to Anusmaran 06 which was held outdoors and hence, had to be wound up by 11pm).

After having dinner, we finally departed by around midnight with the memories of a great evening with friends. Infact, we can still have unofficial get-togethers like this twice a year probably. Wot say ?

cheers
Amit

Anusmaran 2007 - Chennai story

2007-05-21T19:31:00.001+05:30

Anusmaran 2007 - Chennai party will be best remembered (if somebody actually does remember it) as the party that had "almost" everything ...

The meet, which was at top floor of Hotel "Ramada Raj Park" at TTK Road, had arrangements for booze (I stuck to beer, for health reasons), food (with interesting names like "Chow Chow Kottu") and games (again interesting names like "dressing up the mummy"). The only thing lacking was ... the guests

Almost no one showed up... there were something like 10 alumni, plus about 12 students from PGSEM- Chennai batch (Few questions pop in the mind - who are these people and what were they doing at our Alumni meet??) and about 10-15 of the organizing PGP1/2s. Navaneeth Krishnan and I were the only souls from our batch.

Despite the low turnout, speakers took full advantage of the occasion.

There was a long update by Prof RTK {My summary- Even while the profs are being paid peanuts... IIMB has successfully poached faculty from other IIMs....HRD is screwing IIMB (again) and is not giving money for plan/non-plan expenditure(IIMB is using its own funds to run itself) ... and that MDP is a major money spinner - raking in 20 Cr a year}... in the process yours truly did some arbit CP (My question "Are NRIs still getting admissions on the basis of GMAT Scores?" got a politically correct answer)

There was a recorded message by Prof Apte {Gist - donate your money to us}
and a recorded "Chaat" (as in 'kyon "chaat" raha hai baap') by a guy who seemed to be the Alumni Secy.

Then the Manjunath Trust had a presentation on their activities (Gist - Good show on the trial - Murderers got convicted.... Trust has started running an RTI Act helpline). They distributed some stickers (urging people to call RTI helpline)

In the end there was food... nothing great to write home about.

Then only "flashback moment" occurred at the bar counter .... there were cartons and cartons of unused booze ... they brought back memories of a certain Anusmaran 2003 at bombay... at that time, some brave souls had managed to smuggle a huge stash of leftover "anusmaran" booze into our base at Mackichan Hall, Wilson College and then everyone had feasted on it for the rest of the internship ....

Anusmaran 2007 in Delhi

2007-05-21T11:55:00.001+05:30

This post comes about due to Alam's effort at informing all our batch junta about the happenings in various cities. I was 'volunteered' by him to cover events in Delhi :-)

Last night IIM Bangalore had its annual alumni meet in multiple locations across the globe. The Delhi meet was organized at the Hyatt, and the party rocked quite a bit!

Among the batch of 2004, turnout was fairly good (certainly much better than last year). I remember seeing Uncle Sarovar (after a long hiatus), Nishant Kashyap, Mayank the sailor, Pranjal, Sameer Mahandru (still living his role of President as he handed out his card which said Managing Director, Indospirits) and Budddy. Drinks flowed freely and the food was quite good (actually I dont know for sure, all I know is that the salmon rolls were yummy!!)

Although a lot (most?) of the faces were new (I felt positively an old fogey as I saw people with badges saying batch of 2008), it was good to catch up with familiar faces from 2003 and 2005. Prof. Rajeev Gowda spoke at length about the good things happening at IIMB. Among other things, i was pretty impressed to learn that Harshdeep Jolly had written a novel on life at the IIMs (the book was on display at the venue), Sameer Mahandru is going great guns in his business of alcohol distribution (his firm had supplied the drinks for the party), Vineet Khunger is experimenting with a multi cuisine restaurant and everyone else was well settled in their 3rd or 4th jobs since campus.

The party blazed into life once the dance music started playing, with the old regulars (Rajeev Chaba, the India head of General Motors and a lot of people from his batch) hitting the dance floor with gusto along with the more recent folk (most notably a stunning looking Pooja from the batch of 2003). The party however thinned out pretty early, with most people gone around the time of the witching hour.

When it was time to leave, I omitted to carry back a plaque that declared that I had attended the alumni meet. However, it was good to have caught up with everyone (most after a year), and renewed and refreshed everyone's numbers in my phone book.