Trekalog - Touching the limits of mind and body

Mind over body is a powerful yet a dangerous concept. 'Telling' the mind of optimism when the truth is far from it makes us take the most irrational decisions from the heart. Same was my case last weekend, when I overestimated the physical capacities of my body. The initial trek plan was nice and simple when I was going to enter through the Nagala East entry and get out of the Tada water falls. It sounds much more simpler when I write about it. I have even completed this route twice before. So there was probably nothing that might go wrong. If only..

The initial Plan - Nagala + Tada = Nagada

The plans was to take Poornima's group from Nagala east entry, leave them in Magic Pool and continue further down to meet Sankar's CTC group and carry on trekking with them. So it started off pretty well, and I left Poornima's group and carried on. I could see that water was pretty less in the streams. But that was in some of the darker corners of my mind and currently I was driven by the huge belief that I was fit for something like this. Things running in my mind "The toughest race of all is when you race yourself. It never gets any easier, you only get stronger. And its almost never the same". Motivation can so so easy to carry away!

So I kept on climbing though the streams, boulders, climbing till late in the night. I bought almost 2 kilos of food but carried only 1 bottle of water. So I was limited with 1 litre and had to make sense to survive. So not to push my limits further, when I reached the top of the mountain, there was NO WAY I could catch Sankar's group and decided to camp there. Yes this trek for me would be all alone.

My campsite on top of a hill

It was just a hill top with winds blowing hard. I was trying hard to sleep but the stress that water shortage can create is immense. I tried eating bun and cheese but that was making me even more thirsty. Somehow, I stuffed the khara bath ready to eat rice that I had bought and had dryfruits for dessert. Sipped about a 100 ml of water and no more. It was time to sleep and weather was deceiving. It drizzled for a couple of minutes but the wind blew the rain away. The stars were as bright as the moon and trees singing the lullaby. Amonst all this, all I could think about was water. For the next day, I had exactly 500 ml of water. Calculations of how much water I should consume. Where all I can go to re-fill water. etc etc

Morning views

After the sunrise, dehydration hit me hard. I had a nagging headache and was really thirsty. Even my speed was affected because of this and this was the point where I decided, there is no point in rushing to meet Sankar's group. to fetch some water, I decided to enter a nearby valley where based on my past experience, there was flowing water. After bouldering down for 2 hours, I found that streat had completely dried up leaving only some stagnant bits of water here and there. The thirst in me had no intentions of considering the bacteria, cholera or the whole culture of organisms inside and filled up my stomach and bottles with as much as I could. Now there was another 2 hours uphill to get back on course.

No time to enjoy the views

After a stomach fairly full, and a vomit inducing Pongal for breakfast, it was time to get back on track. While on the way up, I had the pleasure of spotting a huge Deer. I was glad that it was true that Nagala had big mammals. Not to let my paranoia wander more in bears and leopards, I kept moving on. One hill after the other, I kept advancing the trail. As they say, when something goes wrong, there a huge probability that some other thing will go wrong as well. It was my left slipper that tore into two.

The broken slipper

From here on, the whole day I had to trek barefoot. Now the tension was mounting up on my head as I had to get out fast. This one- legged limping could take me ages to get out of this dense jungle. I decided to cut short my plan and decided to head straight for the exit. I kept inter-changing the one good slipper from left and right so that my feet doesnt get numb. I avoided the ridges and it had lots of rocks and sharp boulders. So I had to stick to the streams as they had softer boulders, shade and later, they would eventually have water. Finally after travelling for 4 hours, I managed to spot the first signs of flowing water, right at the top of Tada waterfalls. I almost gasped out loud in relief. Drank litres and litres of it and filled up the one litre for the rest of my journey.

The story however, does not end there. I still had to descend from the top to the bottom of tada falls to get back to civilization. From my memory, I took a side stream down and went down as fast as I could. From the confidence of reaching the bottom, I even finished the one litre water that I had filled up. If only I had known, this was the wrong side stream! It lead to a waterfall from where there was no option to go down. It was like a dead end. Almost for 2 hours, I tried finding an alternate route but couldn't. The only option was, to go up, change the stream and then descent. But I had almost no energy to climb as I didnt have any water and foot was crying. There was some stagnant water in the boulders and it was the only option. I shooed away the bees and filled up the bottles and started my accent. 

After switching over to the next stream, I was glad to see some human garbage like biscuit packs, ropes, etc. Never had I been so glad to see garbage! It was as if the koel birds were screaming at me, "I told you that was the wrong stream, but you never listened!". Finally after going down further, I could even listen to people shouting. I sat down at the last boulder. I was out!

The reason I could exit this place, was the heart convincing the brain, I could do it. The mind can do wonders if placed over the body. Though it has major drawbacks after returning home, having dozen thorns, bruises and scratches all over your body and aching hands shoulders and legs, constant headache, dehydration, dizziness etc. but at the end of the day, you have the satisfaction that you completed it. If reaching the physical limits is the adrenaline rush, then I sure had one hell of a weekend.

Day 650 - Reaching the 6th Mountain

One sixth of the distance is covered. It was not long back when we were unsure of this journey, with quizzled minds and puzzled looks, thinking about where we end up. Not many have seen some light atop the 6th mountain but it sure has given them its source. As we reach the peak, the fog settles down and it starts becoming clearer. The tough and strenuous climb is all been accounted for, when we take that final step on top. Covering the mountain takes us one step ahead in the hexagon, gaining knowledge in all six dimensions.

To start off was Financial Accounting. It is like a new language that we can use to decipher the Economic Times newspaper. The double entry system, which raises a lot of doubt in the engineer's mind on grounds of obviousness and common sense is not so easy as it seems. It has lots more to it and followed by all top organizations in the world. Thus to assess any organization, we must assess their financials. And that is precisely what it has taught us, to diagnose and treat the organization financially.

Next up was for the creative bunch of Marketing. Almost none of the crew knew there was more to marketing than sales. A visionary of a leader and many were inspired right away. The classes that were strictly as per the book, and yet so knowledgeable and interesting. Not to forget, creating our own business on paper and projecting it 5 years down the line.

The majority of learning and transformation comes in the brains. The subjects that affected this the most was OB. The propensity to think, evaluate and transform has a whole new meaning. It touches some profound and deep concepts of the human brain without touching the deeper philosophical aspects of morality. Though all learning on this boat is directed to make us better individuals first and anything else, post. The direction and transformation of the decision making is what will help us strategically after our journey is complete.

God will not be on your side, unless you have data. And simply possessing the data is not enough. What is even more important is how you take it up and what it implies. Statistics not only give a mathematical definition for most of the problems today but is the prime forecasting tool today. However irritating the weekly quizzes and marks may be, we all knew that a sailor must know swimming. Excel was another discovery for most of us with its wide range of features and implications.

To speak up is to have courage, confidence and charisma. Though lack of it does not mean it cannot be acquired. The Saturdays and Sundays were on campus speaking sessions where we spoke and more importantly we listened. We listened to what each of us had to say. To know your fellow man is the greatest asset you can find. You listen and you know more. The individual presentations in the Manegerial Communication not only made us aware of our batch but the feedback given gave us some useful insights and challenges to overcome. We could even see most of it applying it practically already.

Finally, we must overcome our fears. Personally for me it is reading and I had to face it in Written analysis and communication. Though its an irony that we had to read more in the written class, but the analysis is where many falter. The analysis of data that had no apparent meaning and writing briefly about things you have no idea about are some of the main take aways.

There is no end to this journey. For what we take out of this shall continue to live on, with us, for the rest of our lives. It is this cycle of knowledge which makes the propellers rotate and the ship move.

One side of the hexagon

Day 651 - Read to Speak

Words are the cannons fired out of a shell. Once its out of the barrel, there is no way we can get it back. The receiver can either respond to the cannon and there is a war in terms of the perceivers. The importance to use control of your language is the utmost feature of judgement from the people whom we are communicating to and how society perceives us on the whole. There are 3 main entities in this process, the sender, receiver and observers. There is another interesting thing called Noise which acts as barriers for the message to reach from either part to another. It sometimes amazes me that how some things in Learning has propensity to trigger such deep profound thought and creativity. The chapter was on Communication, its types, barriers, complexities and where it is important. The process of communication had similar structure as we had seem in Marketing communication with different entities involved. Most of the things that we either ignore or take for granted have such huge impacts or roles to play in the organization. And we never realize it till we read about it. There were two very interesting examples in the book pertaining to use of Social networks and Gossip at workplace. Both unavoidable and yet very critical to control for managers. But the bigger picture which I took from all this is one, to keep the Personal and Professional life separate. Something which is very very easy to say than done.

The process of transfer of understanding

Day 652 - Why do all good things come to an end?

There are certain people who are absolutely flawless and personification of discipline. One such person was Venkatesh Sir who took the last and final class for Marketing this term. And like they say, he had indeed saved the best for the last. The day was about advertisements, their types and other means of marketing communications. So obviously there were lot of Ads in the class being played and discussed. One such thing discussed was the Competitive ads and its ethics in business. It was surprising to see the TOI and Hindu rivalry and how Sir was in favor for it. He continues to surprise me with his opinions and ideologies and like me, he is the role model for most of the students here. The marketing basics and career option has been seen with a new scope and vision after his lectures. His knowledge of wisdom on the industry and his unbiased way of answering student queries is known for. When we were dreading the cases in WAC and OB, here we were looking forward to his Case studies. The Ti Cycles and Radio Mirchi case, I am sure each and every student had been involved so much and learnt how to really structure a case study. Not to forget the marketing project. Not only has it taught us the basics and core of marketing, but also stressed on the 4 Ps, Taught us a lot in Team work and gave us an opportunity to go off track and add value to our proposition. It also made us learn some new techniques in doing work within a group and extract the talents of team members. For me personally, Marketing was best subject that had been offered in IFMR and its all because of Venkatesh sir. You will truly be missed for the next year to come.

Pic Taken from Facebook

Day 653 - The grass is always greener on the other side

I was such a big fan of yours. The way you overtook Ullrich over the Time trial of 2005. It is still right in front of my eyes. The way you dominated everyone on the black beauty, Trek. The way you had 130+ cadence. The way you taught me the real way to ride a bike. The body stable as a rock when the legs swiveled as a machine. When the Rush of epo took you miles ahead in rhythm of power and performance. But on a relative scale, does it really matter? Does it make you any less strong? Does it tell you, all those miles, all those hours on pedal, all those technical insight, all those maneuvers, those off saddle winning sprints, those historic alp de hues climb, crunching on the trainer, restrictions of life, all for nothing? Like their fanboys say, is it all relative?

The infamous hero that refuses to exit the brain

Day 654 - Run, Ride, Explore

What do you expect when you have a facebook feed full of people completing marathons, ultras, cycle races, brevets etc. Aug 15th is the season for all such events and I am overlooking a forest from my window. To make best use of the situation, it was time to explore and it was time to do it right. It was me Sneha and Shruti, we set out to run early on in the morning towards the forests. Both of them were novice runners and I had to be slow to jog with them. we did the usual loop going till the entrance of the forest and while coming back, I saw a trail that raised a few questions in my head. Immediately after returning, I took off in my bike to explore the in and out of that area. And it was a dense forest indeed. What seemed to be a row of trees stretched acroos to a large plain and it was really very confusing. There were 2-3 instances when I had no idea what direction I was headed to. There was a forest hut in the middle which I used for directions. While taking one of the loops, I found a old covered up jeep trail and decided to take it. It was very challenging and rough terrain and the recent rains just made it slush and messy. After covering the jeep trail, it led on to a rocky trail which was tricky and dangerous. Once my pedal hit one of the stones and it was a close call. Somehow, I managed to keep balance and I slowly maneuvered to the next section of the forest and passed along. Totally it was one hour of pure MTB offroad fun and learnt some new tricks in my bike as well. I have decided to film the entire course that i discovered on video.

Trails in the forest early morning

Day 655 - Mutiny

When the entropy of a system goes above the charts, it is pretty clear that a revolt is on the cards. The captn of the ship with high levels of immunity, leading a group of young sophisticated sailors aboard a rough sea. Some are bound to fall, some were falling sick. When the captn showed least concern, the murmurs started spreading in the crew. It was a jitter that spread through the sea and united the crew as one. With recent sense of independence among the mates, they built courage on each other's shoulders. For they decided, they cannot hold it anymore. It was time to act and time to speak up. One had to stand for all. All had to sit for one. Post sunset was the time, when they gathered on the deck. For they were anything but happy in the least. It was the anger in them ready to fight back. But the civil behind their masks made them calm and relaxed. There was no question that the captn can pass. He was answerable to one and all below his knees. In a civilized way we carried out the progression. The first mate promised us monday to be the day, the improvements will begin. With a sense of commitment, the crew pacified. We accepted the desert and the surroundings. It was by choice that we boarded this ship. And it will be us who will take this back ashore. Even though the sceptics lost confidence in the captn, with a longing for Monday, we got back to work.

Captn addressing the crew

Day 656 - United we stand

The independence day. It was the day 68 years ago when the country was formed. Though technically, we are are on a voyage, miles away from what we can call home. The journey aboard doesnt make us any less Indian back when we were at home. The creed of a ship is in its flag and the face of the crew is in its flow. The common religion that we share is the love to our Motherland. And you realize that love the most when you are away. Even though we are stranded in this ship with no clue where we are, we still have one direction when it comes to patriotism. With the pride of a waving flag on our mast, we look ahead positive and vibrant. The desert which looked non-inhabitable, now looked more promising and fertile. The sails were parallel with the breeze as we stood to sing. The song that we grow singing about our nation. The sailors song is the one that is heard through oceans and continents. It is a tale of the sail and sailors alike. The tunes that seem promising and reassuring for a safe and successful return.

Two things I am extremely proud of

Day 657 - Independence from hell week!

"Finally". Was the word uttered by most of us when the clock ticked 4 on Thursday afternoon. The week was bullish and it made us stay up late in the night. for us, it was time to sleep now. Time to forget the end term exams and rest. Though it came at a big price but still it was time to take a break and that is what we precisely did. To celebrate this day, it started with Nipeksh stating he is not from this country but from Pakistan. Astonished and surprised, we started singing the patriotic national songs for him. When a group of people sing, people sing along! and slowly, the singers keep increasing till it was the whole hostel. The chorus was one, the passion was one, the emotion was one, the voice was one, it was that for India. It was truly a memorable 2 hours when we were united with the patriotism from within.

Me and Dipesh trying to convince the Kashmiri that he is an Indian

Day 658 - Transformation is from within

A sum of ten lakhs is not so easy on anyone who is on the non-green side of the glass. A sailor has to live on the reserves and make sure the destination and his sacrifices are always on his mind. Similar were the thoughts that I keep getting flashes of everytime I blink. The guilt just adds up as and when I keep leaving from Prof Lahiri's mouth. From what I learnt today, my personality test gives me a ENTJ which is supposed to make me Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinker and Judgemental. However, there were little of these which reflect in us, when we show incompetence. When a teacher is not teaching well, listen and work harder is what we;ve been taught. Question and do not care what the society would tag you. For it is knowledge that takes priority. Whether we like it or not, this knowledge costed me 10 lakhs which gives it some good weight. Its not just about the money but learning as well. Everytime I flash, get a yawn, make sleep take over, distract, miss out on flow, immediately I get the huge loss that I incur. The intangible loss that cannot be accounted for in the balance sheet that we prepare for period in IFMR. It is this deep sense of guilt and thirst of knowledge that keeps the flame of learning burning in me. The environmental pressures and work stress are just immaterial and are to be added to your assets. Accounting is quite relevant not only in economics but in general day to day life as well.

Going right is easy, turning back isn't

Day 659 - Suit up

Ive been growing up watching american telecoms, and one such fascination of mine is Barney Stinson. He and his obsession with suits was a big reason for my love of suits. Though I could never really convince myself financially to acquire to buy a suit. Everytime I deflected buying a suit, I used to act cool and tell people how I find it soo lame to wear suits. This derogation of suits kept on building up so much that I completely shut myself to them alltogether. After Cognizant abolished the dress code, all my formal shirts and pants went to the bin. Then on I was totally a Jeans and T-shirt person and my suit aspirations were long gone. A business suit was part of the IFMR fee and we had to buy it no matter what. Initially the false perception of suits made me complain and cry about this expense but it didnt last long. The moment I saw the shine, the elegant tie, perfection in a fit, I couldnt control the kid in myself. I was overjoyed and happy to wear my first ever suit! Yaay :D

Suit up!

Day 660 - Powerplay as we enter final overs

After a taxing weekend of running errands, it was the second last week before the first term ends. Not only was it going to become hectic for the students but for the teachers as well. Suresh was taking lectures starting from 9.30 in the morning to 8.30 in the evening. Mr. Lahiri, who had lost his wife to a car accident last week had to come back to teach despite his loss. We could almost see the mourning in his eyes and in this condition, he had to catch up a week of classes which we lost last week. Then it was Prof. Venkatesh who despite having extra classes to finish the course, still spent one extra class on a case study discussing about Ti cycles. The accounting flows and ratios which are ever so confusing and never seem to defy any assumptions that we make. The MAC exam that was preponed, FAC presentation that was due, OB quiz up this thursday and QABD quiz tomorrow. We were now getting a real feel of how an MBA college is like. Under-stressed is just quite the opposite word to use.

The FAIRLY hectic schedule

Day 661 - Patriotism over the internet, a sin?

There are some laws and then there are some rules. Some are really crazy to read and implement. One such law states that using the national flag as a profile picture for a group is illegal. Whats the use of a flag that you cant hoist? A ship without a flag is a same as wandering deserted in a desert. It is always good to be part of a crew and the crew must be represented with a flag that can unfurl and swing to the waves of the breeze. It is that aspect of the flag which captures humans and make us respect it more than any other immaterial personification. The flag which identifies you nationality, belonging, tradition and race. Here is my whatsapp contact list that looked like this before I learnt that it is breaking the law.

Proud to be indian

Day 662 - Saturday, the Errands day

The list piles up when you are cut out from the world. You keep dreaming and making up lists that you would do when you go back home. And two months is a long time without replenishing the dailyware. After a rainy ride to chennai and with sheer determination not to waste another weekend in chennai just browsing useless stuff, I managed to complete 90% of the tasks that I planned. Ofcourse there were some which I couldnt due to unavoidable laziness. The bike servicing got postponed. The visiting relatives that was not entirely necessary got postponed. But Im glad the commodities shopping and TV tuner got done. Its going to be a couple of weeks more to end SEMS and then finally I can attend to my relatives and my bike.

The errands list

Day 663 - Monsoons finally?

It was high time that we had fun in our journey. Offbeat is very essential to maintain your focus and I was lagging behind on my jogging as well. So it was me and Sruthi in the morning and we did 3 strong laps around the campus. All throughout, the climate was overcast and about to rain. Im not a very big fan of monsoons in the city. To complement the climate, we got another news that it was Ganga sir's last class in IFMR. It was emotional for him and us and we made the best out of his last class for Excel. I had chennai on the cards for the evening and and it never stopped raining. Not shaken by fear, I continued my journey of two hours without any stops to Chennai. It was pretty evident onset of monsoons. But this is the first time I will be witnessing it from a thick, viscous desert. Will it change my perspective. We have to find out.

Ganga Sir's last class on Excel

Day 664 - Ti Ti Ti - Now the whole world gets to talk about cycles

The second case of Marketing was Ti Cycles. It was a case that was very personal to me as it involved the cycling industry. It talked about how Ti cycles started the Indian cycling industry and how they revolutionized cycling in india with the legendary standard cycles. Then came in Hero to ruin Ti's party and conquered whole of Indian market. Ti cycles today still has the reliability advantage and cost advantage compared to hero and the case provides an opportunity to think about the logical way forward for Ti. A golden opportunity indeed. Whats a blessing in disguise is that many of these students in IFMR will realize cycles as a solution and will talk about the many many advantages of cycling. Im just hoping that few of them also convert to take up cycling rather than just talk about it. A bit far fetched but still a hope.

Day 665 - WAC and whacked

Written Analysis and Communication has got nothing to do with presentation skills. Yet we were to analyze the annual reports of companies and present their 4 year data. The company we chose was HCL Technologies and Aveek, Anu, Aravind and Bala were in my group. The times were tough as I hadn't so much as read the annual reports the day before the presentation and I was getting an uncanny feeling that I might not be able to complete it!. So I sat at 7pm the previous day and it took a session of 9 hours at a go to complete it. I finally completed it at 4 am and managed to catch 4 hours of sleep. To my luck I was called upon for the presentation and it was fair. 6/10 and I had absolutely nothing to complain.

Large number of people gathered in my room for WAC

Day 666 - No one shall escape the Devil's judgement

The devil had passed its judgement and there was a tide waiting to sweep us. The tide was intense and it was going to rock the entire ship. Those who were acclimatized to the conditions and made their positions well and firm were entitled to survive the attack whereas it was the ones with the lose grip that slipped away. The performance of the crew was dismal and sad. The devil had played its cards and we had to be the ones bearing it. 666 - The number of the beast!

15/30 on QABD was no coincidence. It was judgement by the beast!

Day 667 - Be as creative as you can be

There were testing times in Statistics. We had two concepts of Funda and Goli. It was time to present our skills and prove that we are not full of shit. Though my presentation was not so eventful and my solution was not 100% explainable, I still tried my best. I started off with giving a relevant example describing the savings decreasing over the newer generations and using IFMR and IIIT as examples. I was glad to have scored 10/10. I found that to achieve the next mile, you have to put in your creative head in this institution rather than work like a dog and do mechanical work. The practice which makes a man perfect has a totally different meaning in this ship. Here practice refers to taking your brains to experience totally new dimensions which nobody has ventured out before. It is that which will give us the relevant knowledge.

Fighting to see if they are funda or goli

Day 668 - Time to celebrate the companionship

It was a day for joblessness. and it was indeed for that. I had initially planned for a boating trip in the morning followed by WAC work in the afternoon. And guess what? I did niether. Procrastination is very easy to defeat but it gets easily over you when you look back. In the morning, due to the intense sun, there were not many people interested for boating, and I decided to call it off. But there were a few interested folks who went ahead and enjoyed it. Looking at their photos I was so jealous and upset. So while they were boating in the morning and returned for lunch, My morning was spent just browsing and doing useless things. Similarly the afternoon which was supposed to be for WAC, ended up another jobless afternoon with me repenting on the missed boating trip. Finally when there was some room for productive work, people called me to witness a cricket match where I was in no way involved and wasted couple of hours there. The only good part of the day was a new route that I found using my bike which leads from the forests behind IFMR to the ancient 15th century temple in Sricity. Post that there was a lot of drama, adventure with me and ronak crying over the dried up petrol in my bike and losing time.

Some selfies

The cricket match which had no role for me

Some more jobless selfies

Friendship day to end the day

Day 669 - 35 kilometer exploration

After looking at the climate, only an idiot would sit at home and not make the best use of this climate. So I decided to finish all my work and head out in the evening. But it was not easy. Finished the Stats homework and presentation as soon as I could and immediately prepped my cycle. Dipesh walked into my room and decided to take him along. It was good exploration with checking out some remote roads of Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh.

35 kilometer exploration

Day 670 - Consciousness

It was time to wake up. There a limit to heuristics and everyone in this earth knows it. Only a baby, aged or an addict is a person that has to depend on others. All the others apart from them are competent enough to carry out their tasks. Interestingly, god designed the humans in such a way that he gave us something called ego. It is one of the most interesting traits in human beings. It makes people act in very unpredictable ways in certain situations. It can make a person stop the free fodder and make him do some work in order to eat the fruit. And sometimes it gives us brilliant results. The drive which makes people work on their own for their own fruit is the purest form of work = outcome system that can exist. It is also the drive that brings out the efficiency and perfection in our work. The competition and selfish attitude are by products of such a system which are also vital if channelized properly. The selfless person must cease to exist and he doesnt defy the laws of human civilization.

All that said and done, its equally dangerous if the ego is not controlled. Most of the times, it is an hindrance in the proper functioning of system and work. It is the reason it is seen as a negative trait when mentioned by an individual. Ego is synonymous to rebellious these days, which is quite surprising as they mean totally different things. I just wished we could learn and realize the positive effects of Ego in the very first stages of schooling so that we are not victims of its ill effects.

Random connecting thoughts on a random day

Day 671 - Its never 'just' cricket

I never really realize why the whole world is mad about cricket. Its supposed to be the gentleman's game, only the elite play it and yet the maximum people fight over it. There are always people who get selected and people who fight over it. There is nobody who is ever satisfied with a cricket team. To make matters worse, the religion also comes into picture and then there is the concept of groups. And in the end what you are left with is a large group of people discussing on whether the selection was fair and unbiased. Looks like there is no way out of politics in this world.

The sport which unites and splits us all

Day 672 - Mirchi - Its hot

We could now see Captn Venkatesh's true colors. Not only was he brilliant in handling our class but also involved the whole class in case discussion. Everyone had their own views and opinions and there were perspectives and ideas floating around. We could see that we as a class were moving towards something useful and meaningful. An important aspect that we learnt is the framework that involves the market segment and the product design matrix which helps us get a better picture of the case and opinions. I could see that both Sir and we students enjoyed the case a lot. We will be eagerly looking forward to the next case.

The brilliant climate thats prevalent

Day 673 - Disinterested Consumers and disinterested buyers

It kicked off pretty well when there were four of us who jogged around the campus and even went out into the forest in the morning. To compliment it the lunch was absolutely amazing. There was chicken, paneer, dal, dum aloo, juice, ice cream, gulab jamun. And then on it was flop. The freshers party for which there were 36 of the seniors who came in to conduct a series of events which not only were pathetic but also boring and not interesting at all. The supposedly senior batch were showing their hieghts of immaturity by playing lame jokes and lame events to a crowd that has a mean age of 24. There was crush talk, making people cry, adult jokes and lot of unfriendly and attacking humour. I started to getting a unfriendly feel of the batch 14 and do not look forward to any of their initiatives from here on. I slipped out of the room and went to the hostel. It started drizzling and I decided to go out on a ride on my roadbike. And it was an awesome ride indeed till Arambakkam. I decided from here on, ill just pursue my objectives and passion rather than wasting time in such things.

Morning jog

Day 674 - Things back on track

Things were long pending and as the sine wave or the sea wave predicts, whatever goes up must shall come down. It was time for things to fall on track and the time was now. It was captain Suresh's with his attack head on with not so funny jokes and hotel california 'joint's in his slide. My recent developed haki, enabled me to shield from all his attacks and concentrate my focus on just the essential part of the session. Next on was captain CVK's usual not so looking forwardly case. And I nailed it, writing with the best handwriting I could and relevant contents. Finally, it was Captain Lahiri's eulogy to human focus, but I managed to surpass even that by reading through the chapter before class. Further to add to this, After returning to the hostel, finished the marketing case and ended the day with a TT match which I won. Can you ask for any better day?

You have to wait for the Spring for flowers to bloom

Day 675 - Pulicat isn't good enough

I woke up for the day with Ganga sir on my door. I was supposedly 20 minutes late for the Pulicat trip which made both Ganga sir and Satya Saran sir volatile. I knew I had very little to argue and make good. I decided to give it a try and head out behind their Sumo on my bike. I tried my best to convince them for the trip for which I got a straight reply - You can go boating but behind my back. I was shocked and surprised to hear such a response from him. Not only did Satya saran sir gained a level of respect, But also gained a level of coolness coefficient in my mind. Even though the meeting did not go very well, I decided to be disheartened and came back through the scenic ways of Sricity back to college. It was funny to notice that the number of unofficial things I was planning was increasing compared to the official ones.

The boats that were not fit enough to carry the students

Day 676 - The Nagala Magic

The day I was waiting for finally arrived. It was time to get out of the ship and set sail for paradise. 13 souls agreed for the journey and set off to the wonderland. The share auto posed a lot of problems with going off way a few instances. Finally after 2.5 hours of a tough journey, we reached heaven. The smell of vegetation, the butterflies flying around, birds singing to dusk, petrichor smell all around, the sound of stream against the boulders, feeling the chill breeze against the skin, plants showering dew on your hair, the sweet taste of the herbal water and sights of mountains all around. I was back home. The 12 others had fresh memories up their sleeves and I had given the stimulation my senses were waiting for. It was Nagala day and the whole college was longing about it.

The 13 of us finishing the trek

Day 677 - The Dale impressed the onlookers

There was just one class for the day after which we were free. And as usual, I played TT. I played TT the whole day. Before Class with dwaipayan, after class with Tom, Then with swapnil, Sparsh, Nithin and Akshay. It was turning out to be a TT day. Suddenly the climate became awesome and I decided to take out the Cannondale. It was one hell of a ride with rain sprinkles all over!I was exploring the campus with trails all around. Awesome it was. Further, there were a lot of eyes on my bike and in order to market cycling, I gave the people test rides. And then on, it was dale magic all over them. They were awed by the bike and its performance. My aim is to get atleast 5 people out of 180 into cycling at the end of 2 years.

My cannondale the showstopper!

Day 678 - Its over. Time to shift to the next gear.

The extent the first gear had to take me, took me. It was time to switch gears. After the first three classes, decided to head to the Table tennis room where me and Aveek played close to 90 minues. Following this we played Counter Strike for an year and finally ended up with Football to end the sports for the day. And now it was time to do the serious thing. It was time to be serious and and move on. The time to stop thinking about hurt friendships, and start working on the purpose of this sail. So when the usual bullies came to my room to make fun of me, I simply told them to get lost on their face. The moment my brain decided to form the words out of the alphabet, I regretted it. The second BIGGEST things that I regret, after a lost oppotunity to make money is the rude words that I spit out of my mouth. When I was halfway through the phrase I regretted it. When I completed it, I regretted it. When I saw the reaction on their faces, I regretted it. "You are wasting your time. This is Bullying. Stop this and get lost." It was deep regret. Immediately I made it up by blabbering something to make it up. I could see they penetrated it and took it into the heart. And this made me regret more. It is the phonic attack with words that is irreversible. And that worries me more. Reckless words make a reckless person.

The Bokeh effect out of my wondow

Day 679 - Kill those Competitors

After having nailed Microeconomics exam, and also getting a full 20/20 on FAC exam, life was good. It was Marketing class next and time to study how to NAIL the competition. Personally I was not very fond of this kind of marketing. I tend not to look at the competition to describe your values but to set them yourself. But as Kotler and Venkatesh sir said, it involves a bit of both and a lot of other contingent variables. Like sir told Nipeksh's group, your time is NOW and its time to be aggressive. We were talking about the various strategies that the market leader applies in a competition and it was a very interactive and fun session with a lot of real life examples and videos. After the session, I got the news that we received the stock of new sports equipment that we ordered and decided to play football. it was foot ball in the rains. And the joy of end of Mid Terms did not end there. I did one hour of the Insanity workout in the gym losing tons of sweat. But the Icebreakers here is the OB quiz tomorrow for which trying to study was not working out. Forst it was Ujan and Abhishek pursuading me with filling air in football, then it was Ronak, Nitish and Dipesh who have made it a tradition to visit my room every night and waste my time teasing me with some random girls. And finally we had unexpected visitor in the form of Dwaipayan who kept on talking about photography to leave me with completely nothing, till 2 am. Moreover I had thought of attempting CFAT and CGAT which required high levels of Financial and Marketing knowledge which further ate up the time. It was time to set the priorities straight. This has to end and I have to end it. The voyage on this ship had a meaning and I do not intend to lose out on its purpose.

The purpose of this sail

Day 680 - Nothing is enough, even in Economics

The ship was swaying right and left. The faint hearted were losing grip of the Mast of the ship. The tougher ones were taking control of the situation. They say it right, "When the going gets tough, the tough gets going." The Accounting exam was not just a test of knowledge but also decisions and presence of mind. There was no cues in the exam to be left out and nothing was to be ignored. The minute details of the situation was what determined if you were competent and worthy to set sail aboard this stagnant ship. There were a few rookies, who did very well. They got hold of the situation and came out on top. And there were the few experienced sailors, who missed out on the smaller details and cried at the end of it. In the end, all the crew of 180 appreciated one thing. This journey was no joke. It was the real deal. Nobody aboard can afford to be complacent and take it easy. It was what as Raghuraman sir calls it, Overconfidence Bias. Even the book regards it one of the most dangerous biases prevalent in the world. The main ways to tackle it is through self introspection and self assessment. And the major thing bothering me yesterday, understanding the seriousness of the situation and developing fear of it.

So it was time for Microeconomics and read the twelve chapters of deep profound logic. The ten chapters were seemingly in English but the engineers knew it was something much more viscous to decipher. I had no plans of reading it again and went through the main concepts. But there was Nipeksh, my roommate, Jagan and Dipesh from section B who took it a little too much on their head. They were up late night and even got up early trying to complete the portions. This is the fear that I want to achieve. This is the level of work that I want to expect out of myself. This is the devotion that I expect to see in myself at the end of two years. But this fear comes with a cost. The cost of courage. This attitude of courageousness is not something I am willing to sacrifice for devotion. Let us see where this thought wave rocks the sails towards.

Nipeksh studying Microeconomics even while shaving

Day 681 - Start Music - Here comes the Testing times

My strategy to tackle the floods were simple. Do not underestimate the ship. There is lots and lots of experience this ship has. The voyages in the past, the experiences, the learnings, were all inscribed in the books that were given to us. And that was what I was banking on the upcoming exams. One of the major things to tackle was the assessment of the situation. The relative ease of the subject that Financial accounting was, I decided to stick with Microeconomics till the evening post which ill start Financial accounting. I was experiencing a nice transition from my college attitude. From the read for exams mentality, I was stepping into read for knowledge section. When I used to think that the portions that were not tested in an exams were a waste of time. But now it is the things that you can learn extra, when you read from a book. The things that will make you confident when you talk. The things that will make you credible. It is that which takes more priority than the heuristics. So it was the day for microeconomics even though I had accounting exam tomorrow. But the only thing I was scared of was the seas were intense but they were not enough to make me scared. It is not the fear of seas that I am worried about but the fear of myself. The biggest fear of all, the indifference to the tests and the calm attitude. From all the 26 years that has taught me, it is the fear which drives people to hieghts and you have a situation to worry about when there is lack of it.

Microeconomics

Day 682 - LAGGARD!

With increasing in baggage, you will definately slow down. And it was precisely the case. After the first month and a half aboard the ship, my relentless food intake coupled with non existent physical activity made me gain 6 kilos in 50 days. It is quite a drastic increase and the persistent ankle injury is to blame. This has impacted my activities a lot. My running and cycling is down to a minimum. To get back on track, I decided to start of with an offroad exploration in the Forests of Sricity. Fascinatingly, what I thought to be a desert was infact, a flourishing forest from the inside. The green and isolation around can make anyone fall in love with this paradise. It was the first time in ages, the desert was showing us signs of mercy.

The exploration venturing out into the forests and fields

Day 683 - The Library

As the title suggests, I spent 90% of the time to day in the Library. Started off with Financial Accounting and finished a couple of chapters. Even played a few rounds of LAN gaming in the library. It is one of the best concepts that has been invented by man to concentrate and study and works out really great!

And for tomorrow, Ive got my cannondale with me here! So its going to be an exploration and Im all excited! This is the offroad trail that Im going to take:

http://goo.gl/maps/jN7Zb

The IFMR Library

Day 684 - The test begins and you are stuck in the comode

Lack of sleep was catching up on me. The ship was rocking and the tides were hard. We had lots of work in hand and distractions were creeping up. The sunset which was a pleasure to set sail was turning out to be very difficult to focus on. Further the boat rocks you so hard, it is impossible for you to lay still and concentrate. And that is precisely what happened to the crew. With not enough sleep, I was finding it hard to concentrate and constantly getting headaches. So as soon as the sessions got over, I went to catch some sleep in the hostel. Dipesh woke me up just in time for the Excel examination which I almost forgot and while I was still in the hostel, I got the email with the Question paper! Decided to stop and make a run for it. Finally reached in time and NAILED the exam. The evening was fun too by playing football after a decade. Here is a pic from the day when everyone wanted to show the captain they worked

Students fighting to sign the attendence sheet

Day 685 - United we stand

The placement committee was on a roll. And to capture the roll was on my camera. The common devotion across diversities, religions, regions, states, languages, color, cast, creed, education and anything that could differentiate people was all taken off. It was time to stand as one, stand as IFMR.

The colors of our ship

Day 686 - Where one thing leads to another

6am - Brush teeth and quickly get ready for the jog
6.30 am - Start jog along with new people
7 am - Stretching and surya namaskar
8 am - send invite for counter strike at 4
8.30 am - breakfast
9 am - Come back bath and leave for college
9.30 to 12.45 - 2 classes
2 pm - 4 pm - Marketing discussion
4pm - 5.30 pm - Counter Strike in the mess
6.15 pm - 7 pm - WAC group project meeting
8pm - WES assignment

A typical easy day in an MBA grad student's life..

The Online Gaming which was Fun event for the day

Day 687 - The inspirer, inspired and the inspiree

The people in the whole world are good. There is some good in each and every one of us and every action of humans have another side of the story. It is the limits decided by us which tells us to classify the actions as good or bad. Based on this assumptions and standards that we decide upon and set, we are empowered to classify and judge the actions of others. But we may, every now and then question the initial definitions of Good and Bad. Basing the system of Law and order on such assumptions is not only dangerous but also advocates people to contest or defend the actions of others and makes people commit actions that can be justified in their own ways. This most definitely necessitates a need for an absolute system which is free of any assumptions and relies on definitions accepted by all. The best thing to relate to this is the definition of a meter of length. There have been many attempts to define the metric length but finally it was all relative. It is relative to a piece of metal kept in one corner of the world and everyone else is educated about it. But why arent laws also standardized and similar in nature. Why is there a big religional influence on political and judicial systems all over the world? There are many other questions not just pertaining to judicial systems which relies on assumptions and relativity which could be a major thing to think about.

Tea and snacks. A very good time to think

Day 688 - Keep running and keep up

Persuasion plays a big part in our lives especially as MBA students. Its is one of the primary things we ought to learn and master. It was the task in my hand. After all my life of being a lone runner, now I had to encourage others to take it up. Not only encourage but increase in Numbers. So I had to sell running and sell it real good. Ronak came in to my room and bashed me for not marketing running properly. But running is not something which people look forward to. The best strategy to market running is Time. Only time will hold an answer and will attract most of the runners. It is time that will make people realize its benefits. I chose to include the health benefits and few other benefits to attract a few. The personal goal that Ive set is 10 long distance runners by the end of the Term who can easily run a distance of 10 kms for the Sricity marathon. For this I am targeting some big testimonials and stories that can really help sell running to people. Often we find ourselves in situations when we are trying to do good to people but it hardly ever works out. Lets hope this photo of our walkway in IFMR attracts atleast a few of them tomorrow.

The joggers track in IFMR

Day 689 - Farewell Lalitha Mam

The journey aboard the ship for this year was over for MAC. It was time for Lalita mam to be free and continue her voyage elsewhere. She took ten sessions where each and every one of us presented on a topic and her style of teaching was just extraordinary. The learnings from her class were immense and sure to stay throughout life. The feedback, knowledge and concepts from her classes were immense and each and every one of us had high levels of respect for her. She will sure be missed from here on. Immediately we exchanged some whatsapp messages and decided to make a slambook with messages and buy a gift.

Apart from the MAC, there was an urge to explore. It was me and Ronak decided to explore the lakes and beyond. We took the Palmyra road from Kobelco towards Arambakkam. The road was an absolute treat to the eyes passing through Mango orchards

The Mango Orchards leading to Arambakkam

After Arambakkam, we drove on to Pulicat lake where we learnt that whole of pulicat in their area is just waist deep. There were regular boats going forth and back taking 50 people to a nearby island. Also that island has source of fresh water which we can drink. Also the boats take us to another island with a temple halfway to Sriharikota. It made me all excited!

The fishermen's boats

The fishermen carrying their food

After this, the adventure was not over. There was another road which I had in mind. It was the road from Tada, which directly connects to palmyra road to Sricity. So off we were to Tada and on the way, we went on to see the marble majestic, The Oneness temple.

The temple of Oneness

And finally through yet another remote, winding and twisting road, we came back to Sricity through the Palmyra road. It was narrow and windy. It was one hell of an experience driving through it. Exploration on a Sunday afternoon after ages! On the way in our Journey, Ronak asked me what do I get out of this? why roam around these unknown roads? why roam around, when there is completely no need? A sailor especially in a stranded boat must get his directions right. There is no hope for those who do not know where to go. Venturing out into the unexpected is the prime sense of learning. It is one of the reasons that I got stranded in this desert in the first place. But I am happy that I have figured out how to read the compass and get some sense of directions in the desert.