SAGA OF SIMC

I should have posted this days ago...but have just been a lazy bum!!
Better late than never though..
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I reached Pune, along with my parents, on 23rd night by train, which by the way I had caught just in the nick of time. The guest house we realized, to our dismay, was a good 11 kilometers away from the institute, where I had to report at 9 am each morning.

The Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, where I had been called for a second round of interviews, was conducting it Fest-o-Comm and Admission procedure for the batch of 2010 simultaneously.

The campus was full to bursting with applicants of 3 specializations and their guardians, easily around a 1000-1200 people. My darling parents escorted me and waited till I was registered and asked to move to another part of the campus to collect my schedule for the next four days.
After the initial confusion, we were directed to the institute building where I met hordes of people, basically my contenders. I say contenders because I found out that we were around 350 applicants vying for just 36 seats!
And what should the first thing I see on my schedule be?? My Panel Interview was going to be conducted in exactly 37 minutes!! Despite my immediate panic I did laugh mentally at the ridiculously "accurate" timings(military style) on the sheet viz.

INTERVIEW 1019 hrs 24th January 2008

Well thankfully I just about managed to gather my wits and my interview went off just fine. After a series of questions about why I wanted to do advertising and what exactly I wanted to specialize in, a couple of questions more and they wrapped it up. It lasted exactly 5 minutes, the shortest interview I've ever given in my life.
I also had a group discussion scheduled much later in the day. I decided to make use of the hours available till evening to socialize and make some new friends. I met some wonderfully brilliant people in the course of the day, some of whom I'm still in touch with. You'd be amazed at the spectrum of people who might apply for an MBA in advertising! A 21 year old Latin American dance instructor, a bassist from Goa who works in the radio, a B.Com honours squash captain from Delhi etc. Every person was infinitely more interesting than the other!
Still left with spare time, I participated in a Salsa workshop and took part in an advertising contest for which I won a cap. I finally wrapped up the day with a satisfactory Group Discussion, to head home tired and sleepy.


The next day dawned bright and early. Completely unused to the temperatures in Pune, I was chilled to the bone in the rickshaw ride to Symbiosis. I was glad for the fact that I'd made friends the previous day as it made 25th infinitely more pleasant and relaxing. It was the Journalism day of, Fest-o-Comm. I attended the seminars which were on subjects like- Brains, Beauty and Broadcast, Is the media removed from the majority addressed by speakers like, Sivanti Nayanan, Vidyashankar Iyer etc. The person seated next to me by strange coincidence was my friend's girlfriend, whom by the way I had never met before. I still dont know how we figured it out, but thanks to her my day was made. After the seminars I had the most tasty Alu parantha I have ever set my teeth into, at Kakke Di Hatti, in the canteen of SIMC. The only thing I had on my agenda for the day was the verification of my documents which I managed to get done earlier than scheduled. Well, after all the day had to have its down side right, I broke my bag and my shoe. But fortunately for me my Pune based friend, who was visiting me on campus, lent me hers. As for my shoe I walked barefoot for a while but was the proud owner of a smart , brand new sandal from Woodlands by the end of the day.



26th January began in the usual way, with flag hoisting in the premises of the guest house where I had put up The third day on campus was the Advertising day of the festival. I was really looking forward to listening to the seminars. So I was there at 9.30 am despite having only a peer interface at 2032 hrs. The six hours from 10 am to 4 pm were extremely informative and inspiring all at the same time. We had eminent speakers such as Ad guru Alyque Padamsee, the brains behind the "toing"(Amul Macho), Mr. Pushpinder Singh and a few others address us on topics ranging from Conceptualizing and Media Planning to the simple generation of an idea. Madhuri, the friend whose bag I was still using, came to spend the evening with the malai kulfi available at one of the stalls, and as a by product catch up with me. We caught the beginning of the rock band competition-Distortions. I then headed for my Peer Interface, where as a test, they made me sell an ugly cat to a finicky feline lover.
That evening I met a childhood friend of mine, Gayatri. By the end of our tete-a-tete I marveled at the ease with which we slipped back to being friends at a level so uncomplicated, its a rare thing in today's world.



27th dawned, a chilly Sunday, supposedly the last day of the admission process. My parents left early to return to Mumbai. I lunched with Gayatri and her family and went ahead to Viman Nagar (location of the SIMC campus). The submission of my Assignment, which each short-listed candidate had to complete, was scheduled at 1329 hrs. I was happy that I would finish early and be able to hang out with my friends for the remainder of the day, but things just spiraled out of control from there on. The Director of the institute, dubbed Spacely Sprockets by some(no prizes for guessing why!), was assessing each applicant's assignment personally and individually. On reaching the specified location I was told that there spill over of yesterdays applicants were being tackled presently and this at 2.00 pm on the last day of the procedure. Things just got progressively worse, the back log and delay increased. It was a scene of utter chaos, confusion, disillusionment and last but not the least frustration was rampant. Amidst all of this who else. but my guardian angel, Madhuri came to keep me company. Though she enjoyed ourselves, speaking to random people and taking on the role of delivery boy for the famished, she got unfairly yelled at and water accidentally thrown at her. Thanks to her, I had a memorable dinner of pizza and a chicken wrap amidst pandemonium. It was actually extremely entertaining, the only drawback being, hungry people staring at you as you eat is not pleasant! The queue didn't seem to be ending, and finally the Deputy Director announced that those who wished could come back the next morning to submit the assignments. The announcement immediately decided my course of action.
The remainder of the night was a pleasant stay over at Madhuri's house.

The next morning I had to miss my pre-booked seat on the bus to Mumbai and go back to the insti instead. But fortunately everything went off smoothly and the director appreciated my work on the assignment, which made it worth the while. Immediately, I headed back for Mumbai in the company of an interesting couple. I finally reached home at 6 pm on Monday evening thus concluding the SAGA OF SIMC!!

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A few good things that came out of this:-

1.)I realized that my networking skills are genuinely good and I'm really thankful for knowing all the people that I do.

2.)I met some amazing, interesting and lively people in Pune and mad some good friends who will hopefully last me a while. Also I reconnected with a childhood friend. And last but not the least have come to truly appreciate Madhuri!

3.)Good management should not necessarily be expected from a Management school.

4.)Irrespective of any city I stay in or visit, Bombay will always feel like home!

HAPPY TIDINGS

I've been away from town for a while....but obviously with good reason...
2008 so far is proving to be a very good year for me *touches wood*....

1.> I got a job with a profile that i love!!!
I've been recruited as Assistant Project Manager...and this particular firm will provide excellent
exposure..

2.>I was short listed for the GDPI or rather 2nd round at Symbiosis for an MBA in Advertising...
I just returned from pune today and the admission process went off well..
I will know whether or not i'm in within the next 2 weeks...
I was there for the last four days and the experience has been one of a kind..
I will chronicle them over the next 2 days..
so look out for my posts on the "Stint at Symbiosis"..

I got my first blogger award from Rajeev..
thank U :D

I want to pass on this award to..

Nothingman-for both his blogs..
Jeevy himself for his amazing work and even more amazing templates..
Ashu-for being herself...
Annie- for starting afresh..
Dharmabum-for writing amazing posts..

Like a butterfly
you think I am..
Broken out of
the chrysalis of time...
The time we shared
together as friends..
We retain the title
still today-but only in name..
In my colours
you will see it reflected..
The influence-
our larvae of same origin..
Little do you know that,
my life is a bubble..
I constantly move forward-
but with memories as lifeblood..

PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

I just got back from a trip to my grandmother's house in Nagpur. For the 4 days that i was there, i took a morning walk with my uncle who is a Brigadier General in the Indian Army, and as i just realized after all these years, an extremely interesting human being.

Each day we had a different topic of conversation, arbitrarily chosen. On one of these walks, we had an interesting discussion on Religion and Philosophy.It started interestingly, when my uncle suddenly asked me, "Are you an atheist?"

Now I AM an atheist-at least according to the dictionary. Basically I don't believe in worshiping God, in religion or idol worship. I do, but, willingly partake in all the social and cultural activities which have a religious inclination. This i do as per the advice of my late Grandfather, firstly because these are abundant in India and secondly to avoid antagonizing my parents and stay away from societal controversy and consternation. Considering all this, I Do believe in a power above myself and that the universe is governed by a higher energy force, this I do for my own reasons.

So, getting back, I answered my uncle's question in the affirmative and explained to him that I believe in the omnipotent energy, of which I have seen proof, and this belief I require for strength when my mind is weak or when I falter.

He then explained his point of view with the help of the Upanishads and the Bhagvad Gita. Having said that, I must clarify that though a religious person himself, he took a purely philosophical approach while speaking to me.

It would be quite impossible to retrace the exact discussion owing to my rather poor memory and the fact that we digressed a lot in the course of the discussion.

But at the end of it I wished to summarize the conversation. That resulted in the following:

The concept of 'God' is a man-made one. Every different religion is the result of the limitation of the mind of man in the way of 'conceptualizing' God.
For eventually every religion in essence preaches the same thing- 'God is and omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient manifestation of our belief.'
Religion is a tool for initiation into the 'philosophy of life'.
The various contorted consequences and unfortunate abbhorance in the name of religion is a result of the decay and limited cognitive and perceptive abilities of man's mind or a shrewd mind with an ulterior motive.
I found in my eccentric perception a certain degree of consensus between the age old 'Bhagvad Gita' and modern day philosophies of Ayn Rand, who propounded the concept of 'Objectivism'.

The Bhagvad Gita says that, Lord is not removed from the universe i.e. they are one. I interpret this thus- You are a part of the universe, thus You are a part of the Lord.
So, if the Lord is power, then you are in that power and a part of that power!

Ayn Rand, exults the capability of MAN, not men, and HIS potential, above all else. This concept she calls Man-Worship.

These two philosophies in conjecture tell me,
"To believe in MYSELF, MY energy, spirit and thought and move towards MY goal."

Everyone has a right to their own opinion and philosophy-this is mine.
This may seem like a warped or half-baked or even a brilliant philosophy, with which people may agree or disagree, but, it is MY PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE.

THANK YOUS...

Firstly...HI guys..
I'M BACK!!

i just wanted to dedicate a post thanking all the people who take out the time to read this blog and leave comments on my erratic rants...

your view..your time and encouragement are very valuable to me...

this year is for me one of the most crucial of my life...i really hope i can see it through successfully...

Cheers all!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

The 1st of January is just another date on the calendar..So why the hype about it..
Yes..along with the fist 2 columns on the date line even the 3rd column changes...thats why...then shouldn't we celebrate everyday!!
Well...I think we should...Welcome to this celebration which we call life!

but now since we have shown this apartheid b/w the numbers on the date line...
lets flow with it...

Like everyone else, even I dissect my old year for the good and the bad happenings..
relive memories....wish for big good things in the coming year..make umpteen resolutions(which i NEVER keep)...

But what IS special about this day..NEW YEARS EVE is..that...

its an excuse to have special fun(some ppl need it)...
to remember loved ones(why do we need this)...
to hope for a better tomorrow(shouldn't we do this every night)...

we shud live everyday like its new years eve..(minus the extremely WILD partying and wishing all and sundry..)
and our life will BECOME a celebration...

i'd stopped making resolutions last year...
but only keep one thing with me..

MERELY WISHING FOR GOOD THINGS TO HAPPEN IS NOT SUFFICIENT..BE PROACTIVE ABOUT IT!

LOve to all my readers and non-readers and their near and dear ones...
and warm wishes for good health and happiness for atleast the next 365 days...

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I am necessarily going to have be away from this space till the 10th of January...
See u all after i get back....
TAKE CARE..
CAIO..