Irreparable loss for me

My first blog entry was about this great person whom I still value the most after my parents.

My B Tech HOD prof. M. Ramachandran passed away today. I am still to come to terms with the fact that he is no more. He was such a loveable personality who used to see the entire department students set as his own children. The fundas that he used to give in the class was just out of the world that I used to keep alarm at 11:30 in the morning in just to wake up in time for his class and crash to bed again once his class finishes.

He was one of the most contented individual I have ever met. He was so attached to Coimbatore that he did not take several lucrative offers outside. I have been to IITs and IISc for short term courses and I can say with authority that he was right up there with the stud profs there.

He did not do a Ph.D as he was of the opinion that teaching in an undergraduation programme does not require a research degree. How true! The way he used to give practical examples ..maan i miss him so much!!

I did my undergrad project under him and learnt a lot! Learnings that probably cant be got anywhere. After I had passed out, when I went to get a recommendation for MS programme, I went directly to his house and the ailing picture of him is still quite vivid in my memory. He was coughing his gut out yet was filling all the university forms for me. I thought that was just a temporary illness and he will come out of it soon. Never in my dreams did I think I wont be seeing him again. :(

The last time I spoke to him was over phone on september 5 2008 - teachers day. He asked in his usual friendly tone, "Aporam Umamaheswaran solunga epdi irukeenga?!" (Umamaheswaran tel me how are things?!) The very fact that he remembers my name is an honour for me as he barely remembers student's names..

He retired this year. Some alumni had got together earlier this year to give a felicitation ceremony for the man who served the college department for the past 35 years.. the plan somehow did not take off as everyone became busy in theirr work and assignments.. This is what makes me feel really guilty.. Had we done that.. He would have been a much happier person :(.. Sir, Please forgive me :(

I had one dream (childish you may say)..calling Mr sir for my wedding and having a a small re-union of sorts there in typical Raymonds advertisement style.. That would not happen anymore :( :(

Yesterday, I spoke to my best friend in my college who was also a big fan of MR.. I just could not accept the fact that he was on his death bed.. and I broke down in my hostel room.. Such was his influence on me..

As his last rites might be going on in coimbatore, I just want Sir to hear whereever you are.. Sir, you mean a lot to me and I am indebted to you more than anyone else... Probably you came into this world with a purpose of teaching .. leaving this world after you retired.. I can never forget you :(

One month at the 7th heaven

It has been long since I posted. Part of the reason can be attributed to the rigorous life @ IIM Shillong.
It is really difficult to come to terms with the fact that you don’t get the fat package anymore which means the reckless spending and frequent credit card usage is out of the picture :( .. Worse still is the fact that you have to keep track of how much you gave when going in a taxi with your friends and how much each one owes the other. :) All these take me back to the By-2-cold coffee and light tea days of my undergrad monetary crunch. :)

It is difficult for people living in other parts of India to digest that we have to wear sweaters here in July and gets really cold in the evenings. Ceaseless rain is a normal thing here and probably this is the only B school where you can see students wearing business suits and also carrying an umbrella wherever they go :)
I can tell you, It is serious fun in an IIM with quality people all around from whom you can learn more than you can from the professors. In my batch there are plenty of people who can pull others legs at will the whole night and still come up with an excellent presentation the next morning!! :)

Here, there is a lot of stress on being ambassadors for this neglected north-east region of our country and I feel the atmosphere in this IIM is definitely different from the other IIMs where it is cut throat ugly competition which forces many people to consult psychologists. Here there is real impetus on healthy competition and concern for others. I just hope these values are exhibited in the placement season as well :)

Engineers start at an initial disadvantage as all the accountancy and economics sound Greek and Latin at the beginning but coming around this problem is not a big deal. Engineers often concentrate on arriving at the one and only correct answer but in management it is about analysing the various future options and analysing each one. Finally, after a lot of trade off, we arrive at a solution that is the best of all. Just a tweak in mentality is needed that is it.

The best part of education in an IIM are the case studies where a group works towards a solution and there will be plenty of new ideas coming up. I was never for group studies in my undergrad as I thought it was a waste of time but I have changed my stance after coming here. You don’t get so many fresh ideas in such a short period of time!

The most hated as well as the funniest aspect of a lecture session here is something called DP - Desperate participation. Every subject has marks for class participation and for this reason almost everyone tries to desperately participate irrespective of whether they understood the concept or not. The result is that such dumb doubts and restatement of same questions in myriad ways arise which would make any good professor frown silently :). All these remind me of Tamil comedian Vivek’s famous joke - "Saar,neenga verum daas a? ila lord labak daas a?" :) :) ...

I don’t know how my life will unfold after my graduation but am sure that these two years are going to rock in every possible sense and I am hoping to make the best possible use of the conditions here.