The New Projector

29 November 2012 - A new projector greeted us today..... that was a pleasant surprise, in fact! Even though it is too bright (needs to be adjusted) and projection is more of a trapezium rather than usual rectangle, things are looking up and one major irritant stands addressed. 

   

                                   The poor door (handle, in fact) has not been so lucky. After two faculty members tried to fix it the day before, even our CR tried all his engineering skills to fix it but in vain! So, as predicted earlier, fixture is now hanging with both its sides coming off even with a soft touch. How long will this state remain, is anyone's guess! Reminds me of the ongoing stand off in Indian Parliament; no one knows how long the state would continue to hang around!

                                         Seats.....!! No further comments; just hopes that no one breaks a bone or buys a bruise! 

                                   Back to campus life..... here is our own team of professional number plate FORGERS....

(BUNTY aur BUBBLY....Caught red handed, even though the pen is black in colour, the look out man tries to get away while his accomplice carries on unperturbed!!

                                          And studies seem to be catching up with all of us.....have a look at the reading material....

(Do not get perturbed by the actions of the man in the background....he is not setting books on fire; he is just blowing up money to paint his lungs black!!)

                                            A bit in posting it but just a glimpse of Diwali celebrations at Era Business School. It was a nicely timed gathering.... as our exams were getting over and we were setting off for a short break...

Bye.....so Long!

SoS

SOS........Well, this acronym has various meaning. Seen written across the walls of EBS, it tells us/reminds us/inspires us to "Switch Off Something" in order to avoid the wastage of electricity. Some noble thought this and so is the whole idea behind such an effort.

              During recently held exams, the same SoS would flash in my mind whenever I got stuck on some question, especially the ones that I would have definitely studied for the exam but would be eluding me at that very moment. Under such circumstances, I would simply curse this very concept when some part of our brain suddenly decides to switch itself off!

             Son of Sardar is another variant and pretty fun-packed too!

                And now, we are back to the more classical and original expansion of this acronym, i.e, Save Our Souls! It is really worrisome to see the chairs and general infrastructure dying inside our class rooms. As mentioned in a previous post, most of the chairs inside Section B are dangerously hanging on to their last nuts and we are literally staring at a situation. While a torn or stained mat may be alright, a shaky seat is a big No No! The projector appears to be getting dimmer by every passing day while the handle bar of our main door simply came off today and that too all of a sudden. A faculty member, in all her grace, did try to fix it but could not do so. If left like that, the handle bar that is now half anchored, will be hanging in a couple of days and will certainly come off by this weekend. Seriously, it is high time that someone did do a proper stock taking of such expensive assets that are deteriorating at an amazing speed!

                Today, another week began. With first period being an OTW (Own Time Work) in the library, it did give breathing space to many of us who had left city over the weekend. Such small concessions and thoughtfulness on part of the management needs to be appreciated. There is, after all, a difference between the needs to be at EBS at 0830h and 1000h, especially when you have just landed back from somewhere, say at 0700h. Such small little things matter a lot! 

                An oversight, mercifully, got addressed today. Wednesday is a National Holiday and thankfully, we are back in the national stream!

It is now in the media......

   Welcome to the Desert ......our floor is without water for last two days. Thank GOD, winters are here or else our water suppliers (mostly the members of fairer sex) would have died of exhaustion and consumers like us would have evapourated  due to dehydration!!

BACK TO THE WORK!

(Ladakh in heart and thoughts)
19 नवम्बर 2012 - The first Monday after the break and it all seems to be rolling again. With the First Trimester getting over, this is also an apt time to look back and analyse a few things. But this being the first post of a new trimester, I would rather pend the heavier subject for a later date and time. As you can make out, the first inning has left us pretty exhausted and tired. Some of us, could not even wait for the last exam to get over before   hitting the floor ....

(yeah, this floor and NOT the one you have thought about! It is tough to be a student, you see!)

                  So, we go back to last week when we returned to EBS after a break. The first thing, as expected, that hit us was a great sense of the Institutional Humour! (Have heard of Institutional Area but what on globe is this!) OK, let me explain. When we were closing down for a short break that followed the finals (as touched upon it in one of the earlier posts), there were talks about EBS re-opening for us on Thursday, the 15th. With most of the student community hailing from different parts of the country and with some of the biggest festivities lined up, it was expected, hoped and silently prayed that school will re-open on next Monday, ie, 19th. But our common sense was trashed by a sense of humour that forced us to turn up on a listless Thursday to mark the beginning of the second trimester. Now, look at the scene.... 

            *0825h and the gate next to the parking is still locked and closed; 

            *Out of 100+, only 40 (-) students turn up; 

            *The programme for the day is modified (getting nostalgic now!) after

            the first period because even some of the faculty members were on 

            leave;

            *And most of the faculty members who taught us over next two days,

           were forced to start slow (mercifully!) because of a greatly reduced 

           audience and likely effect of teaching 'too' much on the students who

           had been missing!

       

                 All this indicates a tremendous sense of humour wherein rationality had probably been mocked at. There appears to be no other plausible reason to a dumb mind like that of mine. May be it is a problem specific to a few nuts like me. Team spirit and espirit-de-corps, as I understand these concepts, come from mutual compassion and respect. Some of us are students today; who knows who will be a faculty here or part of bigger team, Era a few years down the line! The meaningful associations will only come when each one of us is looked upon as a member of the family before anything else. A free period in the morning and no classes after 1530h on Monday (today), eg, added insult to the injury. These two slots could have offset one day's curriculum last week and a similar tinkering would have made sure that everyone enjoyed his time with folks back home. Life, after all, is much more than studies and money.

                  The first day, however, had another thing in store for a few of us. As we all know, clocks in various class rooms and halls in EBS, follow different time zones. The very first issue during Foundation Leg was because of a clock running 10 minutes ahead in one of the classrooms. The matter had been reported by me personally and some corrective actions were taken at that time. In my organisation, we have a system of 'Ghadi Milao' or 'match the watch' wherein, on important occasions, all the stakeholders adjust their wrist watches to a synchronised time so that 'time' related issues do not crop us later. It has some other vital uses too. I am of the opinion that EBS must also have an electronic clock placed at a central place and the time shown in that clock should be treated and respected (without questions and arguments) as 'EBS Standard Time' or else incidents will keep happening without anyone's fault. I am a stickler for time but since a particular faculty's watch was one minute ahead of that of mine (incidentally, the one on the wall was one minute behind that of mine) during one of the lectures on Thursday, I ended up losing attendance (along with a few others) for that class. Mercifully, the respected faculty allowed us in and we did not miss out on the lecture. It was like getting out on the first ball after tea break in a test match! Instead of finding faults and looking for reasons (there were none actually!), why can not we, as Nike says, JUST DO IT!

                Talking of the clocks, just have a look...

(Gone with the wind....someone said, it too went for a date with our mistress, Ms CATS)

(Thank God, you are back)

                    Now, on to some real serious stuff. This is what greeted us in our new classroom.......

(If someone were to just walk around in Section B/205, he/she would find most of the chairs off their bases......)

(She is happy NOT  because she is sitting on a rocking chair BUT is happy that she has just prevented herself from tipping over)

      

       Now, whatever be the reason behind such a state of furniture in this particular room, it merits urgent intervention before someone gets injured or most of us become shaky in our dispositions or get too absorbed balancing ourselves to grasp anything from the faculty. And housekeeping, as usual, needs to be kicked up a bit.....

(Not a pretty sight this!)

(Gandhiji used to say that a cloth even if crudely stitched but washed looks good compared to a dirty but intact one, its quality being irrespective)

                      And before I shut down for the day, I would also share an incident that happened today in the morning! We do not have any CR yet and if we were to count the ones from the previous trimester, our section had two of them. But then one who had the moral courage, got the stick! And as the process was on, I was wondering whether symptoms were being treated instead of an ailment that needed to be addressed in the first place. Students, after all, remain students unless some role models lead them through personal examples!

       

                   And as an end note, I would just leave this pic from Naudie's notebook (mine is coded, as ever..... my handwriting being a natural code!) for all my non-EBSian friends who may think that it is all fun and no work in a business school...

(Such drawings send shivers down the spine of an ex-medical student like me!)

                                Take care and for Heaven's sake, do not sleep in the class since you are more likely to fall of your rocking chairs!!

                    

November Exam Fever

                  A Small Deviation....  Going back to the last post, I had intended to post only after the exams were over. I am still on the same track and I want to write in detail only after we get out of this fever. But I am just allowing myself a small deviation here. And the reason for the deviation is the currency of the subject I want to share.

           A shock awaited us (thanks to a failed/crashed ERP of the school.... a few things remain beyond contingency planning) on the very first day of the exams. Failure of the system notwithstanding, it was a sad state of affairs wherein we had to ride and dive over one another to collect an almost plain paper (well, it had a few lines....almost, I have said), fill it up and return it for signatures. The signatures were then put on behalf of someone by someone else. As a result, the first ball was delivered at 1015 instead of 1000h (am I stuck with time issues?). The crash in the system had happened a few days ago and I am sure, as I keep mentioning about leading by examples, a better approach could have been adopted. It is a different thing that that slip of a paper is now our passport to exam halls and just because of its appearance, many of us tend to leave it behind. To be on safer side, I have kept it on the display panel of my car.....just in case (short term memory loss, you see!).  Many things in life, unfortunately, enjoy certain privileges only when done properly. An admit card, after all, has to look like one before it gets the attention it deserves! And as it happens with every lapse at EBS, students attribute such an adhocism to our perpetual MISTRESS called CAT exams!

         One thing that has been disturbing many of us through this process (and the real cause of this deviation when I am writing this instead of preparing for tomorrow's test) is the amount of cheating that has been happening during exams. I mean we are shameless, to say the least. Mobiles (having a mobile is no big deal nor is having a second one) are used like anything. Once a presentation of document has been downloaded into an office enabled mobile phone, all that the user has to do is to be a bit smart and do his/her bit when no one is watching. And lesser mortals who do not have smart phones, do manage with stuff loaded as pics. We were having a brief chat before the commencement of exam today and I found many of the students genuinely disturbed about the whole issue. I did, from my side, offer an unsought for advice by saying that no one can do wonders by cheating (maximum would be scoring reasonably OK marks) but then they had a logic too. The issue is that guys had cheated through cellphones even during midterm exams when we had been made to fight battles on a losing ground (read chairs with extended arm-rests). Being a huge hall and also because of seating style and also being the first time for our 'honest' batch, that lapse been digested by many of us, of course after a few loud hiccups and burps. But this time around, it has been pretty bad. Two to three invigilators in a room with only 30 odd students and still no difference....! 

          It was really unfortunate to see a few students being sent out only for turning their heads around while at least one stalwart was left without penalties even after he had been  caught red-handed, copying from his cell. But then it had happened yesterday. Today, fortunately, things did start to turn around when, after a round by the Director, a few students were caught and sent out. Some  more thought needs to be given to this aspect since in addition to being unfair to others who play a fair game, it is morally wrong and can not be allowed. Unfortunately, numbers are pretty high. Like in today's case, for every person who was caught, at least three managed to get away. I hope some deterrence will now set in.

      It is something like delegation of powers. Before any powers are delegated to anyone, the superior authority needs to ensure that the other person who is being bestowed with such an authority, is fit and capable of handling the same. So, before management and faculty, in a good faith, decides to repose faith in us (we being the PGDM students), it needs to be ensured that we are up to it and do not take things for granted.

         More about it later. Tomorrow is IT exam and I do not want to be caught on a wrong foot and that too for a reason as ITish as writing a blog when I was supposed to study!!

           Good Luck and Adieu!