Examophobia

Finally, I have been able to infuse life into this post by extracting it from a "word file" and posting it on the blog. The reason for this was: unavailability of internet and a small sojourn to Chandigarh, my home town. This post was intended to be posted during the exam time to ease off the exam pressure(if, at all, it was there) but due to the above mentioned excuses this could not be achieved. As they say, "Its never too late to do the right thing". So, without further ado(oops......sounds pretty formal eh!!!) lets treat you to the next post.................

So when we thought we were safe sitting in our bunkers doing out-of-the-world things on Facebook, they have unleashed yet another civil war on us. Its a battle lasting 7 days and each soldier will fight for a duration of 9 hours. Some extra dedicated soldiers fight for even 10 hours.

OK.....OK.....it’s not a war fought with swords but with pens. They said it right – “Pen is mightier than the sword”, yes it is, the exception being this time its might is backed by our diminishing mind(less) power. It’s the focal point of semester 4 and Mid-Semester exams have made their way into our minds and lives.

Believe it or not, most of my “Farmville Enthusiast” friends at college are worried about their “so called” harvest which might be harmed as they go untended due to this mid-semester brain churn. Well, I’ve already thrown “flood light” on our respectable farmers in a previous post. Let’s not ring the bells of history and get back to our fable of mid-semester-brain-numbing-week.

I was trying to down some “Business Ethics” from the book onto my mind when I noticed something. The first chapter of all our books, more or less, starts with one or the other complex word which has been derived from some Greek word. I am pretty sure Greek Gods were not only into poetry, art and literature but also ICMR books to be published centuries later. A majority of students (including me, that is) commence writing answers in the exam explaining these Greek words. (Example: The word strategy is derived from the word Strategos)

The amount of speculations about our exam syllabus surpass even the ones being made at BSE about our unpredictable economy. Everyone here pretends to be Warren Buffett and rise to the occasion of “syllabus estimation” only to realise that it is another effort in vain. E-mails, SMS, and all such mediums are exploited to communicate "our version" of syllabus to others. Even I had a telephonic conversation with a couple of friends a night before the exam to decide the fate of our subject textbook.

Another physiological change that can be observed(other than grim looking faces) during exams is an increased desire to sleep. Even the greatest of nocturnals cannot evade this sleep inducing state due to the lullaby filled textbooks. For this "segment", mid-sems are positioned as a sleep enhancing drug, prolonging the length of their hibernation period.

No matter how much we curse these exams but they do bring an element of "spice" in the monotonous MBA routine. In fact life would have been too dull in the absence of this mid-sem jolt.

Thats it for this edition. Will be back soon with more of such fun and frolic.


Cheers!!!!!

Gags ;)

Blitzkrieg...........A battle of Corporate Assassins

Blitzkrieg - "A headline word applied retrospectively to describe a military doctrine of an all-mechanized force concentrating its attack on a small section of the enemy front then, once the latter is broken, proceeding without regard to its flank."
Thanks to Wikipedia for this insight. The ultimate source of all our assignments and projects.

Well I won't be taking you back to the blood-bath of any German invasion. What I intend to do here is describe another such battle; a battle of managers, a battle of b-schools, a battle to prove one's acuminous mettle. Its Blitzkrieg(Blitz); the coveted inter B-school fest of IBS-Gurgaon.

Statutory Warning: This post will be limited to the "make-up" of our college walls using posters and other such similar elements. It is not the complete description of the fest itself.

The excitement and zeal can be felt all over the campus with multi coloured posters embracing the walls. The very first sight one comes across while entering the campus is that of a long black banner with "Blitzkrieg-09" pasted on it with silver letters. It seems much like the parachute of a paratrooper who just crash landed on our college building. That's not all, there is a lot more to be seen ahead. Lets unfold this mystery................

The first and foremost paper figure I came across was that of a headless "Corporate Assassin" wearing a black suit and holding a blood stained knife in the right hand. It pretty much seems as if our "Corporate Assassin" was enraged and motivated enough to show his skills(with the knife, that is.....) and decapitated himself.

The most prominent type of charts I came across were cut in the shape of hand. Many such "baby and mummy" hands can be seen all around the campus. Blitzkrieg 09 seems more like a campaign being run by the "always power seeking" Congress party. Nevertheless, the amount of effort put into making these hands must have made real hands pain. Never had these artists thought that the innovative minds at IBS-G could turn pernicious for their "handmade hands" by trying to close all fingers but one, much like the gesture shown by Greg Chappell to Kolkata cricket fans.

A place in all the classrooms is well known for bringing us injurious news such as assignments, projects, evaluation marks. This infamous place is a square shaped class noticeboard which reminds me of the Tiananmen Square - both signify a massacre in one way or the other. The look of the noticeboard was adorned and complimented by a poster carrying skull on it(this poster marks the launch of Blitz).

As I was writing this post something on the table caught my eye. It was an Airtel Broadband bill(Bah......they never forget to send it) carrying a small proclamation: "Say NO to paper bills. Save paper, save trees". Had this message aired at our campus, a whole family of trees could have been saved..............my apologies for hijacking the topic. Lets get back to it!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paper figures of gun wielding soldiers can be seen all around the campus ready to fire at you at the blink of an eye. Looks pretty much like a SWAT operation in progress. Well, we do need such a SWAT operation at our campus owing to the kidnapper-hostage situation we are subjected to by our faculties.

Sometimes, by chance, things represent something which was never intended but is true to the core. A poster of Inve$tomania(an event where people obsessed with investments and stocks come and play) at our canteen pretty much signifies the state of the US Economy as the "$" in the name of the event can be seen waggling and dropping.

The SPARTANS club at IBS-G chose such an appropriate place to make their presence felt that it coincides perfectly with the famous dialogue from the movie "300" - our college canteen..................."Tonight we dine in hell".

Well, that said and done, I suppose I have played my role of being a Super-Critic pretty well here. No matter what parodies I've suggested here, the work accomplished by the hard working future managers is commendable. They have infused life by their colours and never ending spirits at IBS-G. Kudos to all!!!!!!!!!

Signing Off...........

Cheers!!!!!!!!!


Gags ;)

Food, Cloth, Shelter..........and Facebook.........

Facebook(FB)............the very first tab I open in my browser. Hotmail comes after that. This has become a default task as soon as my laptop starts. I can state it with full conviction, same is the plight of majority of my batchmates at IBS Gurgaon. This post is an extension to a status message I recently left on "my Facebook" profile.

When Mark Zuckerberg created FB in his dorm room at Harvard, he would have never imagined that his baby would be ranked as the number one social networking site just four years down the line. Anyhow, all such facts are already available on various websites and I would not be presenting an example of plagiarism on my blog.


Lets take it on the lighter side. My Way. My Style..............


The most common word I come across at FB is "Farmville". Little did I know that my batch mates in MBA had an innate talent for farming. Well if I had to describe the happenings on Farmville it would sound something like this:

Agriculture sector in India has hit a boom. Soon, this sector will be the major contributor towards GDP of India surpassing the 22% mark by leaps. Barter system has found refuge with these farmers, exchanging goods of interest with each other. All of a sudden, the latent love for animals has found a channel to outflow. Farmers are adopting animals found wandering on their farms and grooming them to a better form. Also, feeling of companionship and camaraderie has become predominant over all materialistic desires. Farmers of Farmville are going beyond limits to help their counterparts. Strategic alliances being formed to aid each other and maintain a high degree of mutual trust and overall well being of everyone.
Its not only the "K" serials that dominate a woman's mind. I came across this reality when a friend told me she was busy teaching her Fiancé how to play Farmville and seemed genuinely elated on discovering that his farm was right next to hers and they were neighbours now!!!!!


I was intrigued by a message on FB recently which read "Your friend won a fight with your help and wants to gift you a gun". WOAHHHHHH.............when did I fight someone?, and why in this world is he gifting me a gun??? Even if I had to fight, I would have postponed it by a couple of days owing to my tight schedule of extra-classes at college!!!!!
Then a much awaited revelation took place and I was glad to know that this message has its roots in another FB application named "Mafia Wars". Mafia Wars on one hand has urged people to come together forming clans and working as a team to "execute" their rivals and satiate their inner sadistic drives, on the other hand it has shown us perfect examples of "brother-against-brother" situations(oh no no, relax. it was just a simple internet gangwar). A friend pinged me on gtalk the other day and frantically told me he is being attacked by his brother along with his friends (on Mafia Wars, that is). The war had intensified to such an extent that it was now being fought between two b-schools rather than two brothers. Calls were made, SMS were sent and no matter whichever communication method was present, it was exploited to the best of its capabilities. IBS Gurgaon Won !!!!!!!!!!!

Facebook has provided us an avenue to keep in touch with friends we otherwise would have lost touch with. Uploading pictures(the ones where we look good!!!!) and showing them off to friends has become a fad. Friends are gratifying their inner whims and fancies by asking questions to a "BABA" who would answer in either "yes" or "no". Friends and foes are being ascertained by applications like "Friend of the Day". The most interesting update is "relationship status", and if by any chance it changes to "single" will be glanced upon by the maximum number of corneas.

FB also is the home for some inspiring moments. Recently a senior did an amazing deed by singing and uploading a song he sung for his ailing friend and expressed the concern he carried for him.

Facebook has surely revolutionized the way we interact with friends and known ones. Its another way of expressing humour, happiness, distress, and all such inner states.

In the meantime and in between time, that's it, another post meeting its end. See you soon!!!!!


Cheers

Gags ;)

There has to be a start..........this is it!!!!!

Gagandeep Rana, Rana, Gaggi, Gaggu, Gags or simply Gagan. These are some of the names his family and friends use for him.

So who is he ? He is just an average Joe who has his own ambitions, insecurities, strengths, weaknesses and such similar adjectives. Lets end the dramatic feel here itself and let me take you from a third person tone to a much desired first person tone..............

I belong to a Himachali Rajput family but was born and brought up in Chandigarh, which led me to patronise the Punjabi culture. It seems as if Punjabi runs in the blood. Though this has never resulted in diminishing of respect I carry for other cultures. At the end its humanity that matters the most.

Life in retrospect was mostly fun and a modicum of studies. Did my schooling from St. Xavier's Chandigarh till Xth class and joined a Govt. Model School for secondary education which I completed with Non-Medical stream. By now I had enough interest about computers infused in me that it seemed certain I'll be pursuing my higher education tinkering with computers. Joined BCA as a graduation stream which seemed to suit my interest perfectly just like the right key for a lock. The coming three years had a lot in store for me. Saw many aspects of life viz. love, achievement, friendship, betrayal. Alongside, I also felt another transformation transpiring. The keen interest I carried in computers was intact but due to some reason I was not able to take it to an extent in order for me to adopt it as a career. "Who would sit all day long in front of the computer developing codes and finding bugs. This would make my life an infinite loop with nothing more to do." Interacting with people seemed to be much more interesting and would make life much more fun. My belief was cemented further by faculties who knew me well and had taught me over the past three years.

MCA? Nahhhhhhhhh.............MBA? Here I come!!!!!!!

While preparing for MBA I generated certain interests and hobbies I still take out time for to this date.
Gymming was one of them. Its a fact that our body secrets a hormone called "Endorphin" whenever we exercise or do some strenuous physical work. Its Endorphin that gives us a "feel good" factor. I make sure I never run short of Endorphin.

I also became part of a team that started an online magazine named "theScene" which covers diverse topics such as health, movie and music reviews, hardware and software reviews, computer games reviews (Talking about computer games, this is one interest I cultivated some years back and is growing with time).

Music has always appealed me through almost all its forms; oldies, ghazals, rap, desi hip hop, indi- pop...............and the list goes on n on n on. Amongst all these forms of music the two which appeal to me the most are rap and desi hip hop owing to the challenging and vernacular verses these songs are composed of. Its been some years now since I've been working on my "verse rattling" skills. Its Fun!!!!!!

An obsession I contracted recently is that of a "Photo-frenetic". Photography reveals many hidden meanings that otherwise would go unnoticed. It makes the most meagrely important aspects seem utmost important. Brings out the beauty that would not be revealed otherwise. It is these aspects of this art that excites me the most. Subsequently, this makes a DSLR camera take the topmost spot in my gadgets wishlist.

Why I started this blog?
Expression is a powerful trait possessed by an individual. I have recently seen many friends expressing their ideas on blogs. It sure is an effective medium to voice your opinion and getting to know what others think about the same. Another inner state(which I also exhibit explicitly) that I'll bring out on this coveted blog is "HUMOR". No matter in whatsoever form it is, humor it seems, is intertwined deeply within me, much like siamese twins. I try to search for something humorous (believe me!) in everything.

That said and done, I'll stop the atrocity I am inflicting upon my laptop's keyboard(until the time I come across something else worth sharing).


Cheers!!!!!

Gags ;)