SIBM Pune GD-PI Experience 2011

These are some of the questions are recently answered for an online site similar to PagalGuy. I am posting them here too. I shall be more than happy if it helps someone. Cheers!

 

   1. How is the GD- PI process structured at SIBM Pune? Can you share your experience?

The GD-PI structure at SIBM Pune consists of four legs. In the first part, we are shown an advertisement which we have to assess, dissect and give our views about. It tests the creative, marketing and interpretive side of us. We were shown an advertisement of Camlin Markers which had an element of humour in it. The second part of it is a Group Discussion. A contemporary topic, mostly from the national news domain, is given and you have to discuss on it with a group of 8 people for 10-15 minutes. Then with the same group and the same panel, you discuss a case study for the same amount of time. The case in our case was a general case study, which had the usual clash between ethics and performance. It was a non-organizational case study and we had a healthy discussion. The final leg included the interview which, in my case, was led by a panel of 2. Both seemed elderly and very polite. They made me feel at ease and the interview was not at all stressing. But then people with so much experience have a way to find out what they are looking for at the exact moment when you feel relaxed. They had my Annexure in front of them and they had already gone through it. The moment I saw their faces, I knew that half the job was already done. So for SIBM Pune, work hard on your Annexure. 

   2. What are the best sources to prepare for the SIBM Pune GD-PI?

For the Group Discussion, you need not prepare by picking up a current affairs book or something. It can be done by diligent reading of the newspapers of the last 3-4 months. Basically you need to be aware of all the big 5-6 news doing the rounds. And for each one you need to have a few arguments, either for or against. That will sail you through the GD. As far as the PI is concerned, you basically need to be thorough with the Annexure that you were asked to submit when you got a call. My Annexure can be read at http://pranay-joiedevivre.blogspot.com/2011/02/annexure-that-got-me-through-sibm-pune.html

 

   3. What are the characteristics that the panel look for in a candidate?

They basically look for the right learning attitude (40%), skills and ability (20%), interests and background (20%) and creativity and ability to think on your feet (20%). Remember, they do not expect much from you, as you will be groomed by SIBM in these two years anyway. All they want to see is a clarity of thought, and if you are mature enough to be in a b-school or not. If they do not feel so, they might think that you need some work experience before joining an MBA course. And honestly, it's much more learning if you have come with atleast a bit of work experience. But that is a separate issue. 

   4. Tips and Advice that you would like to give students?

Be aware of what is happening around you, watch debates (The Big Fight, We the People) on NDTV.com, watch TED talks, inculcate a habit to read articles from Economist, Tehelka, Frontline and Harvard Business Review, apart from the usually suggested Economic Times and The Hindu. Read a lot during this preparation, anything and everything you can get your hands on. Make up your mind about the specialization you want to choose by reading more about related careers on the net, on blogs or by talking to seniors who are in B-schools or have passed out from them. Read books, listen to good music. Make a list of the books and music artists and interests that you want to talk about in your interview. Do an inside-out research about them, because it happens that we have read a book or seen a movie a number of months ago for us to remember the nuances about the characters. So, it’s better to refresh those memories.

Words

Unhinged in the rush of semantics,

Deeper into words I climb,

Feeling my mind unclasp,

From the exasperating rituals of days unbound.

Blinded by the darkness in the character,

Sullied by the dirt sublime,

My soul gropes for the scattered reasons,

Tasting the numbness of time.

Oh my! It’s six already, hours passed by in a daze,

In the unreal human lie which I now faintly perceive,

Let me fly, the literature unshackle my soul,

This is the only life I want to breathe.

Doom II: Trouble?

The worst performing currency in Asia. Ever increasing and uncontrollably high fiscal deficit. Inflation continually above 9% in all the months of the calendar year 2011. Eurozone simmering. Foreign Institutional Investors pulling out of India. Humongous current account deficit. World economy teetering. The worst performing stock market in the past year in the whole of Asia. Capital goods sector shrinking by a gigantic 25.5% portending doom. Stultifying policy paralysis. These, and more, are some of the terms that I hear even in my sleep these days. They are all around me. From my Macroeconomics lecture to the dinner table, from class presentations to late night hostel discussions, this topic rules the roost. No matter how much you want to run away, sometimes it gets difficult to tear your ears away from these numbing predictions. The sword of economic doom is dangling perniciously on the neck of the faltering elephant.  

The perception of the economic performance of a country, especially in foreign markets, is shaped primarily by the level of its political stability. Assertiveness towards change is what the government of India lacks right now. If the Congress Party fails to win a lot of seats in the upcoming Assembly elections, it would have to depend heavily on its whimsical partners to garner the support needed to stand on its broken legs. If such a scenario turns up, forget about any reforms. The future sessions of the Parliament would be a repeat of the laughably depressing winter session, whose proceedings were some sight. Only a favourable result for the Congress party could give enough legroom for the party to make the train of reforms atleast start moving. The Assembly elections are important also because it would make or break the plans that the Family has for its “young” scion. Whether Rahul Gandhi’s attacking tactics can make a dent in Mayawati’s big plans is anyone’s guess. Meanwhile, B-school students can only sit down and pray. 

Fear and pessimism is written all across the faces I see. Doom splashes in the ocean of their eyes. The possibility of poor final placements by the end of the next year scrapes our soul. But then half-glass-full-me steps in. Did I scare the wit out of you? Of course I was exaggerating! The main driver of inflation – food inflation has fallen to a six-year low, Eurozone may finally extricate itself out of the morass, US economy seems to be improving, and car sales finally up. These and some other leading indicators are giving a glimpse of the light at the end of the long dark tunnel. But for the light to come true, I guess I better pull myself away from the web of words and start preparing for the quiz I have tomorrow!

        

Kiva.org - Making a Change

I wrote this paper as a part of the curriculum for Rural Marketing on the topic 'A Marketing Model functioning outside India, impacting the bottom of the pyramid'.

Introduction

Kiva Microfunds (commonly known as Kiva.org) is an organization which allows people to lend money via the Internet to microfinance institutions, which in turn lend the money to small businesses and students. It basically funds the working capital needs of the entrepreneurs in villages, who either have their own shop, want to start up their own business, aim to increase the scale of their business or just want the money to educate themselves. 

It is a non-profit organization, which has its headquarters in San Francisco. It is supported by loans and donations from its users and through partnerships with businesses and other institutions.  

Administering Loans

Kiva primarily functions by interfacing with the lenders on its online presence called Kiva.org. With a mission to “connect people through lending to alleviate poverty”, and leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25. Kiva does not keep a cut of the loan. Nor does it charge an interest rate to these microfinance institutions.  

Kiva works with microfinance institutions on five continents to provide loans to people without access to traditional banking systems. These MFIs are called “Field Partners”, and they are the ones who administer loans in the field. Kiva relies on a world-wide network of 450 volunteers who work with the Field Partners, edit and translate borrower stories, and ensure the smooth operation of countless other Kiva programs.

  

The people behind Kiva include volunteers, Kiva Fellows, Field Partners and the board, and a team of employees (shown above) and contractors. The Kiva headquarters are located in San Francisco, California.

Funding

Most of what Kiva lends is primarily funded through the support of lenders making optional donations. Funds are also raised through grants, corporate sponsors and foundations. 

History – Kiva through the years

Kiva was started by Matt Flannery with his wife Jessica, in 2005. In its first year, the site featured a spinach farmer in Cambodia, a hot dog stand man in Nicaragua, a carpenter in Gaza, a bee keeper in Ghana, and a fish seller in Uganda. Behind each of these businesses lay a story. These stories are at the heart of Kiva’s goal and strategy: the human connections Kiva claims to build between lenders and borrowers have brought new lenders to the microfinance movement, and fostered in them a new awareness and connection to the people who briefly use their money. By telling stories, Kiva allows MFIs that lack access to capital markets to efficiently raise money and serve more clients.

Matt Flannery claims to have been primarily influenced by Dr. Mohammed Yunus – Nobel Peace Prize 2006 laureate, and founder of the Grameen Bank. By sticking to their idea of “Sponsor a Business”, Matt Flannery wanted to focus on progress rather than on poverty. During the early days when he did his research, he found out that there had always been a historical tension between the donor/lender desire to “know where my money goes” and the recipient organization’s need for efficiency.

Another challenge that Kiva faced early on was the question of whether it was better to be seen as a charity or as a business. This was a challenge of perception. Flannery noticed that people seemed to think in these big categories, and breaking existing mental models proved harder than it seemed.

Also, commercialization of microfinance institutions was another trend to be watched. If microfinance was going to have a significant impact on world poverty, the argument went, then MFIs needed to be integrated into the global economy and tap into the capital markets. But an online survey showed that 50% of the potential users of Kiva would not lend on the site if Kiva adopted the for-profit model. Rather than compete in the commercial investment fund game, Flannery wanted to get individuals who had never even heard of microfinance into the mix.    

Legal Hurdles at the Outset

In the US, there are a number of regulatory bodies that pay attention when you offer investment products to the public. Such bodies protect investors from losing their money on scams. Most notable among these is the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC maintains a definition for what is and what is not a security. If the SEC says that you are issuing securities, they require that such securities meet a long list of requirements. One of those was that the businesses being invested into comply with US accounting standards. This was not always true for a goat herder and a fish seller in rural Uganda.

Another issue was that Kiva wanted to center around loans, not donations. They preferred to call their users lenders, not donors, as Kiva would actually return their money, possibly with interest. Thirdly, under the US Patriot Act, there was high scrutiny around flow of funds to other countries. Since the initial MFIs that Kiva wanted to focus on were in Africa and Asia, there was uncertainty regarding such scrutiny. 

Making a Beginning

The first task that Kiva owners faced was to define exactly what, in terms of investing, were they trying to do. There were a few high level goals that they were trying to focus on:

• Allow internet users to make small loans to specific micro-borrowers around the world, possibly with interest.
• Connect a network of MFIs to the Kiva platforms and have them post the loan applications of their borrowers to the site.
• Create financial connection between lender and borrower whereby the lender assumes the default risk.
• Create loans between people, not necessarily organizations, where Kiva acts as a platform and MFIs act as distributors.

Considering the role of SEC and the problems it might have created had the loans had an interest attached with them, they would have been considered securities being offered online. Thus, Kiva owners, after a year and a half of debating, exploring and researching, decided to launch Kiva.org without the interest rates on the site.

The domain name “Kiva” was initially being held by a squatter. Flannery bought it from the squatter for $600, and till date, considers these $600 the best money he has ever spent. The beta version of Kiva.org was launched with seven borrowers profiles online. All of them were funded over the weekend, where the managed to raise $3500 in a few days. Matt and Jessica were blown away! This was better than they had expected. 

How Different From Microfinance Institutions?

Kiva claims that the following two reasons are instrumental in differentiating it from the standard microfinance investment model:

• Kiva has a risk-tolerant source of funds: Individual internet users lending small amounts at a time have a greater appetite for risk than commercial institutions or wealthy individuals using microfinance.
•  Kiva uses the internet as a reputation-building mechanism: Through Kiva, MFIs keep a track record for borrowing and paying back in real time. Users can monitor the performance of each MFI and the borrowers associated with it. Thus, Kiva claims to give organizations the ability to prove themselves through performance in a similar fashion to how Ebay allowed lesser known individuals and businesses to become major e-commerce players through credibility scores. 

Camping Grounds

Kiva initially began by having tie-ups with around twenty MFI partners in a few months of its inception. But soon the owners realized that by limiting themselves to Africa, they would artificially reduce their potential partner base by 90%. While many such institutions exist in Africa, the majority are elsewhere. In fact, in 2007, Africa represented only 10.4% of microfinance worldwide; the areas of greatest concentration lie in Southeast Asia and Central and South America. Two factors have led to this situation:

• Africa has a low population density. Microfinance has scaled best in places where crowds of people live in close quarters. Dense populations bring down the transaction costs. The lower the transaction costs, the lower the interest rates. Higher interest rates are less appealing to the poor and thus inhibit growth.
• Microfinance does not have a very long history in Africa – it is relatively new. The first great movements of institutionalized microfinance occurred in Bolivia and Bangladesh and spread from those regions.

Kiva’s Revenue Model

Kiva divides its financials into two separate buckets – loan volume and revenue.

Loan volume refers to the capital that the lenders send to the entrepreneurs on the site: $25 at a time. One hundred per cent of this money is channelled to Kiva’s partners and then distributed to the entrepreneurs. Neither Kiva, nor its partners, as their agreements dictate, take any money out of the money stream to the entrepreneurs.

Revenue is capital that flows to the organization itself to fund their own operations – rent, servers, salaries and other expenses. They calculate the project revenue as a factor of loan volume. Today, Kiva has two streams of revenue – “optional lender fees” and float.

Optional Lender Fees are essentially small donations that Kiva’s users make during check-out on the website after making a loan. Typically, 7 out of 10 users choose to donate 10% on top of their loan to Kiva. For instance, making a loan of $100, the typical user chooses to pay $10 on top of the loan, bringing the total to $110. These small donations are tax deductible and Kiva doesn’t pay taxes on any profits made from them.

Float refers to the revenue from the interest accruing in one’s bank account. In 2007, float was a small revenue source that accounted for 1-2% of Kiva’s loan volume, but today it has grown to become a greater contributor to revenue streams.

Kiva’s Product Philosophy

People are central. The first thing one notices are faces. Money and organizations are secondary, people are primary.

Lending is connecting. At Kiva.org, money is all about information exchange. In a sense, money is a type of information. Lending to someone else creates an ongoing communication between two individuals that is more binding than a donation.

Things are always changing. Every time you load Kiva.org, it should be different. Every minute, loans are being purchased and repaid, and stories are being told about the borrowers. This can lead to a dynamic where philanthropy can actually become addictive.

Emphasize Progress over Poverty. Business is a universal language that can appeal to people of almost every background. This can lead to partnerships rather than benefactor relationships. We appeal to people’s interests, not their compassion.

Create a Data-Rich Experience. Whenever it is possible to collect data from the field, collect it. Over time, Kiva will display as much information about its partners, lenders and borrowers as possible and let the users decide where money flows.    

Statistics

I end this report by shedding some light on the achievements of Kiva represented in the form of numbers, though I would like to admit that the impact that Kiva has had goes way beyond mere numbers. As on 27^th December, 2011 (Kiva updates these statistics every night on its website), the following were the numbers that stamp the element of success all over Kiva:

Total volume of all loans made through Kiva	$270,656,900
Number of Kiva users	1,053,184
Number of Kiva users who have funded a loan	661,323
Number of countries represented by Kiva lenders	217
Number of entrepreneurs that have received a loan through Kiva	356,106
% of Kiva loans made to women entrepreneurs	80.53%
Number of Kiva field partners (MFIs Kiva partners with)	147
Number of countries Kiva field partners are located in	61
Current repayment rate (all partners)	98.92%
Average loan size	$385.48
Average total amount loaned per Kiva lender	$257.58
Average number of loans per Kiva lender	7.82

Not Just Another Brick in the Wall

I’m in a business school. Within the four walls of this “launching pad”, so to say, solutions and explanations are being hammered into our benign minds, ready to give a “fresh beginning” to our careers. (One very oft expressed assumption, not entirely inaccurately though, is that most of the students who have a work experience prior to coming to the b-school just wanted to change the sectors that they were working in). We are finally getting to make head from tail of the jargon that the newspapers like The Economic Times are full of. (The dull orange colour of the newspaper is ubiquitous; it is to be seen everywhere in this campus – the mess, the classrooms, the library, and sometimes even the poorly lit corners, perfect for the couples, can be found with the dull orange lying in a corner). But still, after so much of an effort, it is strange how perfect understanding of some topic always seems one step away – the closer you come, the further away it flits. Having subjects like Macroeconomics for the semester helps, but you never find enough time to do stuff. I like playing guitar, writing, listening to music, reading lots of books, but never find “enough” time to pursue each of them. The word “enough” is by its very nature illusory, especially in the context of a b-school. 

One good thing about a b-school is that you find all varieties of people here. I would say to the extent that it is a perfect representative sample of human beings – not financially or taking their educational background into picture of course – but by their very nature. You will find the “loner”, who is into his books all the time and not giving two figs about team work, collaboration, leadership, and all such ideas that they keep talking about. You will find the “screamer”, one who is hyper-active almost all the time, who dares to shout his lungs out at 3:30 am in the morning in the halls of the hostel. You will find the “ideal”, the student everyone wants to be, who is academically strong, perceptively astute, street smart and one who earns good name for whichever institution he is associated with. You have the “irate”, the one who cribs about everything from the mess food to the dirt under his bed, from someone’s way of walking to the unfairness of the whole system. You have the “balanced”, the one who everyone can bank upon in times of distress, and who never gets angry, not even while driving (can you believe that?!). And believe you me, at the end of the day it is such people who give you a perspective about life and it is they who make the whole business school experience something to cherish. And contrary to what Roger Waters said in 1979, when it all ends, you won’t be just another brick in the wall.  

I Can Change the World!

Recently, in our Consumer Behaviour lecture, we were shown a video on the projector. It was one of those videos that fill you with passion and pride in being a part of this great nation, that makes you want to stand up against this system, that makes you want to bring about the great change that today India is in a desperate need for. Even our highly admired Professor admitted that this was one of the most inspiring videos he had ever seen. As the 3-minute clip came to an end, the high spirits and the energy in the room were palpable. It felt as if everyone who would walk out of that room at the end of the class would change the face of this country by “standing up against the system”. But what did it come down to? Zilch. Nada. Half an hour later when the lecture ended, we left the room yawning, thinking about that soft bed that awaited us in our rooms for the beautiful post lunch siesta, all the patriotism and self-actualization transiently achieved by that one moment, lost in the streets of the mundane.

         
We all like to believe that our one act of spiritedness can change the world, one act of selflessness will end all unfairness. But it is not so. One, and for most of the times the only change we can bring about is a change in ourselves. Not a drastic one, which is near impossible. But a gradual change in our attitudes and perceptions that can make this world a better place. I can sense clichés galore, but I have an example to explain my point.

          
In our b-school campus, there is a canteen which is frequented by one and all at different times of the day, depending upon how busy the schedule is for that day or more importantly, what is on the menu in the mess. There have been occasions when we do not have much time between lectures and we have to get in the queue outside the canteen cash counter to order something. This queue tends to get long, depending on the time of the day. If it’s the lunch hour, one can expect to wait in the queue for a good 5 minutes for his turn. Now I’ve noticed instances where everyone flocks the one who has reached close to the cash counter, for ordering everyone’s food. It is a common thought that paying him the money and asking him to give your order as well would save time and energy involved in standing in the queue. I feel nothing but pure repulsion at such a behavior. Why do not people realize that it is unethical and grossly wrong to do so? If someone is standing in the queue behind that person, is he a moron to wait for his turn and not jump the gun like a bunch of smart-asses like you do? Is he plain stupid to follow the order, to respect others’ exigencies and constraints? No. Let me tell you that he is way wiser than you. You – The next time you jump the line and ask some “friend” of yours to order for you as well, look into the eyes of the next person in the line, and look at the anger at the system that is reflected there, at the gross unfairness of it all. It is HE who is trying to maintain an order. And it is YOU, who gives him all the incentive to break the rules and create the chaos that the system is today – so that you can crib about it later!

          
Such a thing happened with me recently, when I was bombarded with requests while I was close to the counter. Three “friends” found me standing there and all their friendliness arose to give me their orders. Then some more. I ordered for five people apart from my own order. And as I turned, my own roommate, who had joined the queue behind me, was there standing silently without my knowledge. He had not felt the need to give me his order, though I could not be closer to anyone than my own roommate. And when he joined me in the queue, there were at least 9 people ahead of me. That made him the 11^th in the queue – a good 8 minutes approximately. And he was scheduled for the same lecture that all of us had to attend. But he knew what small things matter.

          
I was a part of a similar queue the next day, when everyone started bombarding the people standing in front of us. The guy standing next to me appeared flustered, “Why are we standing in the queue? Let’s also give our orders to those in front of us!” That enraged me to such an extent that I almost shouted at him. Why is this bandwagon effect so strong? Is it peer pressure? Is it the fear of being different and being laughed upon? Or do we just look for a shortcut? If it is any of these – and I strongly fear it’s the last one – we are in for a big trouble.

          
It is this “chalta-hai” attitude that is destroying our identity as a nation. Go to any part of the world, and such small things are taken for granted. They are a part of life. Try jumping or pushing your way through a queue in, say, Hong Kong, and you will be stared down by one and all, leaving you ashamed of your own self. Everyone drives in their own lane in every western country, while road traffic in India is akin to a rat race. Things like “courtesy”, “respect” and “manners” hold a lot of value there, while in India they have become nothing more than mere jargons used by old men in white suits. We think these things do not matter a lot. But this is where the real change begins – with our own selves. Not littering and keeping our environment clean, not wasting any food by taking only small fillings in our plates, not just making sure we don’t leave any water tap open, but closing any tap that we find overflowing, anywhere at any time of the day, vacating our seats for elderly people while travelling in buses, addressing females with respect – these are just a few of the things where we can start by bringing about a change. But alas, we do not realize their importance. We only like to soothe our inflated egos by bursts of passionate nationalism and fervour for changing this world – bursts which have a very short life span and which die with a whimper. We should understand that rather than going gung-ho over something impracticable, it would be much better for us and for the ones around us if we start by standing at our rightful places in the queue. Can we make this small promise to ourselves? Let us spread this humble word to whoever we know – and it would then be interesting to watch what happens when the next time there is a long queue outside the canteen! For once, let us make peer pressure work in a positive way. Cheers!  

Demo(n)crazzy - The Ills, Thrills and Chills

The inception of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement was an epochal event which will go down in the annals of Indian history as one that reformed the face of modern India. It has created a sense of panic among the ministers who were used to basking in the comfortable sun of power. Now that comfort is eroding and that sun is slowly turning cold. A certain fear has been stirred in the conscience of the corrupt. But above all, it has brought people from all lifestyles together against a simmering cause which has had a sizable impact on their lives since ever. It was the common platform against this anger, not so much the love for Anna Hazare, which has made it a successful movement. But some uncomfortable questions need to be asked.

In the 2G scam, A. Raja was implicated, along with some top honchos of the telecom operators that were alleged to be involved. They, along with Kanimozhi, are still behind bars. But the problem is that thus far the CBI has not been able to come up with sizable evidence to prosecute them. Yes, the power of collective anger of the middle class says that they must be involved. But what good do we know? There is a lot that goes on behind closed doors and who committed what crime and with what intentions is something that is always very hard to verify. But the Congress had to act to save its face. This expedited action has led to an undesirable fallout. Policymaking has never been the problem, but implementation has been the bane of Indian polity. This peculiar position has been made worse by the Anna Hazare movement. Implementation of reforms by the government has come to a standstill, which is having a very negative effect on the growth stimulus that the government is supposed to provide to the ever slowing industry growth. Policymakers widely agree on the opinion that the soaring inflation can be given only a breather by the monetary policy of the RBI, and only quick implementation of long term reforms can bring down prices. High interest rates are in turn slowing down the growth, which can further be bolstered only by reforms. But babus sitting the cushy offices are no more comfortable signing blindly on the files passed on from above. In fact, they believe the safest thing to do is to let the file eat the dust. Why be involved and sign on a seemingly harmless piece of paper which may turn out to be a scam tomorrow and come back to haunt them? And that is what exactly is happening. The wheels of the Executive are stuck in the morass of procrastination.  

But then this is the downside of a democracy, that behind a freedom of expression, there could be an abuser, behind a Right to Information enquiry, there could a defamer, behind a rape accusation, there could be an avenger, and behind a safeguarding power conferred to the armed forces, there could easily be a human-rights violation. A well-functioning government should know how best to balance these opposing forces, but the eternal dilly-dallying by our present rulers on important issues has worsened the problem. Congress could make a beginning by taking care of the reform implementation, now! Being too late on that front can prove disastrous for the Indian economy, notwithstanding its strong fundamentals in the face of the impending Euro zone debt default.        

Forgiveness

Remember you always will, people who have hurt you

the wound, inflicted by that someone's indifference, will always bleed

there are times you felt angry, there are times you felt betrayed

but none compares with the peace you felt the day you forgave

Matt 5:24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

Clutter

Clutter on the bed, on the table, in my wardrobe and in my mind is how my current situation can be best described. The drive of excitement spurs me to labour on, but the lack of relaxant is making me jumpy, moody and irritable. I need a break! But before all that, I would describe the current situation to you. My roommate is having a bath, and I am waiting for him, so that we can proceed to dinner because my stomach is starting to make strange sounds now. I am reading Marketing Management by Philip Kotler, the de-facto bible of marketing. I feel excited when I think of myself in a marketing role, but I would like to admit – when I first tried to read Kotler, it was as if an invisible force had warped my mind and my thinking power had all but evaporated! I could not understand what the guy was trying to say! I flipped through the pages. The whole book seemed full of jargons from a different world. And if this, I thought, is supposed to be the most basic book for Marketing being taught to us in the first semester itself, how on earth will I ever cope with the terrible things to come? It was only eventually that I eased into this frame of mind which defines rush as mundane, 5-hours-of-sleep-a-night as lucky, and (mostly) inedible mess food as a non-entity, something we’ve stopped thinking about, which does not give us a pain in the arse (no literal meaning intended) any more, as there is a larger scheme of things to worry about. Talking of mess-food, may be this is a conspiracy by the college authorities to inundate us with regular assignments/tests/presentations, so much that we fail to notice the unpalatable food. Or maybe the whole university is involved. Or maybe, just MAY BE, I’m going insane!

          Well, that could be some food for thought. I get up from my bed, stretch myself into a yawn so wild that everything starts to look blurry with the water clouding my eyes, shake myself back to senses, and look out of the window. Not much can be made out, but the lights in the hostel rooms of the building across, reflected as shimmering sparkles in the water puddles across the length of the area between, tell me that it’s raining buckets. We had five tests, two case studies and one submission this week. Still, one more test remains. Sometimes it’s hard to believe how far I’ve come in these 7 weeks. Not that I have learned a lot – I have serious reservations about that! But I’m learning the essence of hard work. And I’m learning to be sincere towards myself. Not to mention, I have met some wonderful people. And yes, there is also that one professor who I revere, and am always in awe of. Though I might end up securing a very poor grade in his subject, looking at the way I’m going. But that’s a separate issue altogether. Presently, my room-mate is almost ready and I look around for my umbrella. I’m surprised to find myself wondering what could be there for dinner.    

The Morning Walk

          When the morning air strikes that perfect balance between chill and warmth, it almost smells sweet. And it was this sweet smell that diffused my nostrils this morning when I went for a walk in the nascent summers of Shimla – the summers that usually have a very short life span, but while they last, they are something to be cherished. The first thing I felt was a pinch of regret for showing haughtiness when Mom asked me to take Dad’s morning-walk-stick along. It’s actually less of a stick and more of a baton, and it is to keep the monkeys and the stray dogs away – the creatures that are at liberty to loiter in the Shimla streets that are almost deserted from dusk till dawn. The sight that made me feel the regret was a group of 3 monkeys – not a large group this one, from what one might expect of Shimla – a dumpy one sitting lazily on a shorter tree growing on the slope whose top almost paralleled the height of the road, another one swinging from the cable line that went above and across the road and a third one – the mightiest – walking on the railing, making its way menacingly towards me in a measured, determined step. I hesitated, but remembered the timeless adage which said that never mind the monkeys and it’s a high probability that they won’t mind you (notice I said “high-probability”. It’s because there have been a few strange, gruesome cases, when things go wrong, that you don’t want to hear about!). So I went past them, pretending not to look at them (in fact, I’m sure I created some kind of record for looking the most sideways while keeping your head straight!). And true to the saying, the monkey also minded its own business and walked past me. The last glimpse I could catch of our ancestors, before I turned the corner, suggested one of them busy eating into the money plant that our neighbours had so assiduously taken care of for so long – all in vain.

          As I approached the main road, which is steeply elevated, I begin to think of my childhood days – all the times when I passed by the same shops that I was passing right now, how we, as kids, always hated having to fasten the top button of our uniform shirts, eclipsed by our tie knots, which were in turn, usually made by our respective mothers and the golden principle was that the knots were not to be muddled with for eternity. I thought of how, by the time the school ended, the shirt top buttons would be unfastened, the sleeves roughly folded up to our elbows; how we used to buy the 50 paisa “chuski”, out of the daily pocket money of 13 rupees – 10 as an emergency requirement (which lasted about a week), 2 rupees for the bus fare and 1 rupee for big babol/boomer/center fresh/chuski.

          I also thought of all the times we had observed the holy ritual of visiting the Mall on a Saturday evening, not to shop (though The Mall is basically a promenade, more like a shopper’s paradise), but to just roam, just to look at all the pretty people of the opposite sex and find solace in the confirmation that they were wasting their time in the same precious way. This all formed an indelible part of how I grew up. Now I would be going for an MBA and life would be very different. It would zoom by before a blink of an eye. I know I would long for this slowness in life characterized by a life in Shimla – the lazy mix of sunlight with the chilly air, the azure of the sky which seemed to bestow upon the town a sense of plenitude, the deodars, which seem to be conspiring in huddles, all of this and more add to the lethargic beauty that Shimla epitomizes. Deep in thought, I realized that I had almost reached back home. And for a change, I cannot see any monkeys to welcome me back. Is this change a start of something new? I wonder.