Studying Economics is Interesting!!
After moving across the width and height of the country for last two months, finally I am settled for two years in Indore (better to say IIM Indore!!). I will prefer to say IIM Indore or Planet-I (IIMI is commonly known as Planet-I.... especially among student communities) not because to add IIM, but in order to reflect the real feel of this place. This place is about 20 Kms from Indore Railway station and airport. So, from Monday to Saturday life remains confined to the boundaries of IIMI or maximum it reaches till Rau (the local market place..about 3-4 Kms from here). Study, enjoy or celebrate - for all the purposes, we have campus as the only choice and that makes it a different planet. I have not yet got a chance to roam around Indore. We planned to go to city on last Sunday but the riots and subsequent curfew screwed our plan.
I reached here on 29th June ( a day before registration). Soon after arrival to campus I was dropped to my room in an ambulance (no, I was not injured or ill!!). Thanks to Arjun Singh's rapid expansion plan of IITs and IIMs. The new hostels were not yet completed so, we ( 60 out of 240) have been accommodated in newly built staff quarters. These staff quarters are slightly far from the rest of hostels. This distance adds 5-10 minutes overhead to every work of my routine. Another bad thing about these staff quarters is that these are not connected to Institiute's LAN. This resulted in having no net connection. The good thing about these quarters is that I have got attached bathroom (so, no waiting queues even during peak hours!!!). Currently I am sharing room with another guy from Bangalore. Sharing room is another something that people usually doesn’t like. But given the current tight schedule and no net connection at room, most of the time room is occupied by only one person. The interesting point is that the current busy schedule makes the need of single room even less important!!!
Before coming to this place I was anticipating that the registration and hostel allotment process would be a real pain. I still have the bad memories of standing in long queues and filling up the same information in countless number of forms during my admission process at IIT Roorkee, 6 years back. Surprisingly here these official procedures were smoother than my imaginations. Don't know if things have changed so over the period of 6 years or B-schools are good at managing processes.
To add to my surprise was the loan disbursement process of banks. Here it was a tough competition between State Bank of India and State bank of Indore. They both were trying their best to lure students to opt for their loan. Bank staffs were chasing the students worse than the credit card agents use to chase employed persons in cities. They were running with readymade drafts and telling students - Sir, aapne loan liya kya?? agar nahi liya hai to ye check lijiye and kal deposit kar dijiye aur formalities kal complete karenge! Even though I have already got my loan approved from State Bank of India before coming here, the bank personnels arrived at my room 3-4 times with drafts in their hands. Everytime I said that I have already got the loan. Their question was - achcha, kahan se liya loan?? As I said, State Bank of India se liya hai! This was resulting in a relaxed smile on the face of State Bank of India's staff and a sad expression on the State Bank of Indore's staff.
On 29th night seniors called a meeting of our batch and they announced a shocking schedule for us for coming weeks. We were told to assemble at Hostel lawn at 5.15 AM. From 5.30 AM it was physical exercises for 1 hour and then from 6.30 AM was the one hour lecture of SAD (Self Awareness and Discovery!!) and most importantly YOGA for another one hour!! Just after listening this schedule, the instant reaction was what the fuck is this?? This was just not enough, we have to attend the classes from 9.30 AM and to add all these miseries I was staying 5-10 minutes away from hostel! But, now when those morning rituals are over and a story of past I can say that was not so bad. In fact that helped a bit to get accustomed to the routine for the coming 20 months. I am not going to write the details of these routines here.
On the day of registration we got some 8-9 books, few spiral notes, few notebooks and other stationery items. We also got a 2-3 page printed document and the staff told us--- this is the case for your tomorrow’s introductory class. Oh! What is this? We are supposed to start study from the very first day! The next day it was inaugural of our program. BCG, India Director, Dr. Harshvardhan was the chief guest. On the day of inaugural I woke up at 5.00 AM and went for morning rituals (Exercises, SAD, YOGA etc.). Once the morning rituals were over I came back to room and then attended the inaugural ceremony. I tried my best to be awake during the inaugural and luckily I succeeded in that. After that it was the introductory class and that too a case discussion and for 70 minutes!! A big challenge for me! People who know me can imagine that how can I attend a 70 minutes class without sleeping? Anyways I was trying my best to remain active in class. The first impression of the prof also made me aware that I have to be careful. What a cool prof… He asked 3 guys to stand in a corner for the whole class (that too after negotiation.. else he asked them to leave class!). The mistake of these guys was that they didn’t bring the case printout with them. After some 40-45 minutes I yawned badly and that prof saw me in the class of 62 at that particular moment. “Do this next time, leave the class” was his immediate reaction! The sitting arrangement (fix seat in the class with nameplates in front of your desk) adds another pain.
Life is not so bad. God can’t be always so harsh on me. Just some adjustments were required and as an average Indian I am also not bad at this life of adjustments! Now it has been about 2 weeks and I am used to this routine. After attending the few nightmare lectures (how can I forget Material Science by bcc..fcc, Physics by Kelu..and many more..) By some of the pathetic profs at IIT Roorkee it was not much difficult to get used to the lectures here. Here I can classify profs under the category of good and bad but, almost everyone try his/her best in order to make classes interactive. At least they are tech savy! There are 8 courses in this semester. Few of them are interesting and few others are just to be digested. Fortunately we have Economics. I like Economics and have got the prof who tries to make it more interesting with his crazy jokes. Few of the jokes I can recall…
While explaining indifference curve he spoke 20 units of clothing and 30 units of food and then he clarified, don’t worry about the units the concept is more important. Unit of cloth may be meter for Rekhajee and Centimeter for Rakhijee!!
While explaining the concept of consumer satisfaction, he spoke that the basic assumption here is that “more is better”. Then he suddenly reacts ..there may be exceptions.. more of spouses is not better or that may also be better for some people!!
The best of the lot was when he was explaining the concept of marginal utility. In order to explain that once you get more amount of anything you are less willing to sacrifice any other thing for an additional unit of that thing (which you already have more). He told.. ”do you watch these IIFA awards, Filmfare awards…you would have noticed that for the first song the actresses/actors come fully dressed and then start removing their cloths very fast and when in the end they left with two or three pieces whatever you say they completely stop removing cloths. While that is time when people eagerly waits for the removal of those 2-3 pieces!!! What an example…now no one can forget the concept of marginal utility!!
Though being a South Indian he always enjoys pulling legs of South Indian eating habits. He never forgets to site an example of Kellogs. “Kellogs came India 10-15 years back with a goal in mind of changing the breakfast habit of Indians even if it takes 30-40 years. He says it seems almost impossible. Go to Chennai…in morning anywhere you will get Idalies at the rate of 50 paisa an Idaly. In Rs. 5 you will get 10 Idalies. So, why a south Indian would prefer paying Rs. 90 for 200 Gms of Kellogs instead of paying Rs. 5 for 10 Idalies!!!”
This is not all about the Economics. There are countless of graphs, theories and equations. But, yes studying Economics is interesting!
Some of my good friends might be wondering that I have not written anything about Indore yet whereas they claim I came to Indore by choice! Great! When I hear that I have come to IIMI by choice it adds some height to my greatness! Getting only 2 calls and finally converting IIMI only, I didn’t have a choice. But, these comments make me feel that I have opted for Indore. Last week riots and then subsequent curfew made it impossible to visit Indore city yet. This weekend it will be preparation of reports, presentations and studying for quizzes. So, It seems I will not be able to comment on Indore for coming few days. In the end what all I can say is..yes, I am enjoying life at IIMI and Indore!!
After moving across the width and height of the country for last two months, finally I am settled for two years in Indore (better to say IIM Indore!!). I will prefer to say IIM Indore or Planet-I (IIMI is commonly known as Planet-I.... especially among student communities) not because to add IIM, but in order to reflect the real feel of this place. This place is about 20 Kms from Indore Railway station and airport. So, from Monday to Saturday life remains confined to the boundaries of IIMI or maximum it reaches till Rau (the local market place..about 3-4 Kms from here). Study, enjoy or celebrate - for all the purposes, we have campus as the only choice and that makes it a different planet. I have not yet got a chance to roam around Indore. We planned to go to city on last Sunday but the riots and subsequent curfew screwed our plan.
I reached here on 29th June ( a day before registration). Soon after arrival to campus I was dropped to my room in an ambulance (no, I was not injured or ill!!). Thanks to Arjun Singh's rapid expansion plan of IITs and IIMs. The new hostels were not yet completed so, we ( 60 out of 240) have been accommodated in newly built staff quarters. These staff quarters are slightly far from the rest of hostels. This distance adds 5-10 minutes overhead to every work of my routine. Another bad thing about these staff quarters is that these are not connected to Institiute's LAN. This resulted in having no net connection. The good thing about these quarters is that I have got attached bathroom (so, no waiting queues even during peak hours!!!). Currently I am sharing room with another guy from Bangalore. Sharing room is another something that people usually doesn’t like. But given the current tight schedule and no net connection at room, most of the time room is occupied by only one person. The interesting point is that the current busy schedule makes the need of single room even less important!!!
Before coming to this place I was anticipating that the registration and hostel allotment process would be a real pain. I still have the bad memories of standing in long queues and filling up the same information in countless number of forms during my admission process at IIT Roorkee, 6 years back. Surprisingly here these official procedures were smoother than my imaginations. Don't know if things have changed so over the period of 6 years or B-schools are good at managing processes.
To add to my surprise was the loan disbursement process of banks. Here it was a tough competition between State Bank of India and State bank of Indore. They both were trying their best to lure students to opt for their loan. Bank staffs were chasing the students worse than the credit card agents use to chase employed persons in cities. They were running with readymade drafts and telling students - Sir, aapne loan liya kya?? agar nahi liya hai to ye check lijiye and kal deposit kar dijiye aur formalities kal complete karenge! Even though I have already got my loan approved from State Bank of India before coming here, the bank personnels arrived at my room 3-4 times with drafts in their hands. Everytime I said that I have already got the loan. Their question was - achcha, kahan se liya loan?? As I said, State Bank of India se liya hai! This was resulting in a relaxed smile on the face of State Bank of India's staff and a sad expression on the State Bank of Indore's staff.
On 29th night seniors called a meeting of our batch and they announced a shocking schedule for us for coming weeks. We were told to assemble at Hostel lawn at 5.15 AM. From 5.30 AM it was physical exercises for 1 hour and then from 6.30 AM was the one hour lecture of SAD (Self Awareness and Discovery!!) and most importantly YOGA for another one hour!! Just after listening this schedule, the instant reaction was what the fuck is this?? This was just not enough, we have to attend the classes from 9.30 AM and to add all these miseries I was staying 5-10 minutes away from hostel! But, now when those morning rituals are over and a story of past I can say that was not so bad. In fact that helped a bit to get accustomed to the routine for the coming 20 months. I am not going to write the details of these routines here.
On the day of registration we got some 8-9 books, few spiral notes, few notebooks and other stationery items. We also got a 2-3 page printed document and the staff told us--- this is the case for your tomorrow’s introductory class. Oh! What is this? We are supposed to start study from the very first day! The next day it was inaugural of our program. BCG, India Director, Dr. Harshvardhan was the chief guest. On the day of inaugural I woke up at 5.00 AM and went for morning rituals (Exercises, SAD, YOGA etc.). Once the morning rituals were over I came back to room and then attended the inaugural ceremony. I tried my best to be awake during the inaugural and luckily I succeeded in that. After that it was the introductory class and that too a case discussion and for 70 minutes!! A big challenge for me! People who know me can imagine that how can I attend a 70 minutes class without sleeping? Anyways I was trying my best to remain active in class. The first impression of the prof also made me aware that I have to be careful. What a cool prof… He asked 3 guys to stand in a corner for the whole class (that too after negotiation.. else he asked them to leave class!). The mistake of these guys was that they didn’t bring the case printout with them. After some 40-45 minutes I yawned badly and that prof saw me in the class of 62 at that particular moment. “Do this next time, leave the class” was his immediate reaction! The sitting arrangement (fix seat in the class with nameplates in front of your desk) adds another pain.
Life is not so bad. God can’t be always so harsh on me. Just some adjustments were required and as an average Indian I am also not bad at this life of adjustments! Now it has been about 2 weeks and I am used to this routine. After attending the few nightmare lectures (how can I forget Material Science by bcc..fcc, Physics by Kelu..and many more..) By some of the pathetic profs at IIT Roorkee it was not much difficult to get used to the lectures here. Here I can classify profs under the category of good and bad but, almost everyone try his/her best in order to make classes interactive. At least they are tech savy! There are 8 courses in this semester. Few of them are interesting and few others are just to be digested. Fortunately we have Economics. I like Economics and have got the prof who tries to make it more interesting with his crazy jokes. Few of the jokes I can recall…
While explaining indifference curve he spoke 20 units of clothing and 30 units of food and then he clarified, don’t worry about the units the concept is more important. Unit of cloth may be meter for Rekhajee and Centimeter for Rakhijee!!
While explaining the concept of consumer satisfaction, he spoke that the basic assumption here is that “more is better”. Then he suddenly reacts ..there may be exceptions.. more of spouses is not better or that may also be better for some people!!
The best of the lot was when he was explaining the concept of marginal utility. In order to explain that once you get more amount of anything you are less willing to sacrifice any other thing for an additional unit of that thing (which you already have more). He told.. ”do you watch these IIFA awards, Filmfare awards…you would have noticed that for the first song the actresses/actors come fully dressed and then start removing their cloths very fast and when in the end they left with two or three pieces whatever you say they completely stop removing cloths. While that is time when people eagerly waits for the removal of those 2-3 pieces!!! What an example…now no one can forget the concept of marginal utility!!
Though being a South Indian he always enjoys pulling legs of South Indian eating habits. He never forgets to site an example of Kellogs. “Kellogs came India 10-15 years back with a goal in mind of changing the breakfast habit of Indians even if it takes 30-40 years. He says it seems almost impossible. Go to Chennai…in morning anywhere you will get Idalies at the rate of 50 paisa an Idaly. In Rs. 5 you will get 10 Idalies. So, why a south Indian would prefer paying Rs. 90 for 200 Gms of Kellogs instead of paying Rs. 5 for 10 Idalies!!!”
This is not all about the Economics. There are countless of graphs, theories and equations. But, yes studying Economics is interesting!
Some of my good friends might be wondering that I have not written anything about Indore yet whereas they claim I came to Indore by choice! Great! When I hear that I have come to IIMI by choice it adds some height to my greatness! Getting only 2 calls and finally converting IIMI only, I didn’t have a choice. But, these comments make me feel that I have opted for Indore. Last week riots and then subsequent curfew made it impossible to visit Indore city yet. This weekend it will be preparation of reports, presentations and studying for quizzes. So, It seems I will not be able to comment on Indore for coming few days. In the end what all I can say is..yes, I am enjoying life at IIMI and Indore!!
5 comments:
abe Roorkee's registration is much better now.. we now use something called Regol (Registration Online).. its all done online now.. infact it started wayback around 2004/05 when we were in campus.. its a pity that you don't even know about it still :)
and yeah first year mein yoga karle.. second year mein i'm sure kamasutra chalega.. :).. I also have a fantastic idea about not sleeping during long lectures.. take a copy of debonair with you.. you'll then be able to find even more creative examples for you economics lessons ;)...
.. exam mein topo ke funde to kaafi kaam ayenge bidu.. rrke ka chaar saal ka experience use jaroor kariyo..
all the best.. keep posting !
really cool...i have just adoubt ..are you able to stand up amidst this..aur fatte pel rahe ho ki poori class kar li...
Do you know what are you doing by writing such blogs? All the CAT’08 aspirants are frightened to know the hectic schedule of IIM. There must be many good things there also. I think, it’s just a matter of time, as you are forced to do many new things. Once you will be accustomed to this routine, it will not be a problem. So, keeping in mind to motivate CAT ’08 aspirants, write one more blog to drive them.
Waiting ……..
Do you know what are you doing by writing such blogs? All the CAT’08 aspirants are frightened to know the hectic schedule of IIM. There must be many good things there also. I think, it’s just a matter of time, as you are forced to do many new things. Once you will be accustomed to this routine, it will not be a problem. So, keeping in mind to motivate CAT ’08 aspirants, write one more blog to drive them.
Waiting ……..
wo to hum sab ko pata hai ki aap iim I choice se gaye the
ab funde dene se kuch na hoga
aacha ye to bataya hi nahi ki aane wale din RASTE mai sabse pahle kya dekha bolo bolo
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