It was only a year back that Debottam, from the Class of 2009, wrote about how proud he was at ISB being ranked 15th by Financial Times. The honor this time, is all mine. ISB is the youngest B-School in the top 20, and the journey from 20 to 15 and now to 12, in three years,  has been a remarkable one.

As they say, there seems to be only one way to go from here! Here is to ISB. We Rock!!.

Anyway, back to the original topic. Solstice this year was a gala affair, running over the complete weekend from 18th to 20th Dec, with over 500 alumni and their families in attendance from all over the place. We also had alums sharing quads with current students, getting nostalgic about their ISB days.

The student villages were all decked up for Solstice, with lighting and promotional posters (comprising of some really funny extracts from the batch yearbooks) all over the place.

Student Village 2

Student Village 3

Most of the alums arrived on campus on Friday, with registrations during the day. We also had mock interviews for the current batch by some volunteer alums as well as events for kids who were on campus. There was poker from the afternoon till evening, followed by a ‘Speed Networking’ designed to help the current students get to know the alums better.

This was followed by dinner and drinks with the alums along with a stand up comedy show, ‘Hamateur Night’ was the term, at the Class of ‘09 Amphitheater, by Vir Das, the Indian equivalent of Russel Peters. The show was opened by ISBians trying out their hand at stand up comedy. For some videos of his work, try looking on Youtube. [WARNING: Search at your own risk. Some of the videos may be considered offensive by some people. We take no responsibility for your search results.]

Vir Das @ ISB

The comedy hour was followed up by a bollywood themed Christmas party at the Class of ‘08 lounge. We had a DJ flown in from Mumbai and the party rocked, with a huge number of people on the dance floor! This was probably the biggest party on campus till date, and we may not be able to match it again, though I am keeping my fingers crossed over the last going away party of the year.

The Party

The Dance Floor was Full

The party went on till late in the morning, with people being ferried to a nearby hotel for an early breakfast to actually end the party! And yeah, 5AM is early by all standards!!

More about the second day festivities, and the a great music concert in the next post…

- Jasnoor, Class of 2010

Term 6 started off pretty slowly with not much to do except all the events that we had this time. We had the Venture Capital Investment Competition, in association with the Kenan-Flagler Business School @ UNC. This was an internal round and the winner from ISB gets to participate in the Asia Round that we are organizing for the first time sometime in Feb. So this was kind of a trial run. I was handling all the logistics and I can tell you, it wasnt an easy job. It did go off without a hitch though, so no complaints.

VCIC Internal Round

Parallel to the VCIC, we also had the Energy Conclave organised by the Energy and Manufacturing Club on the same weekend!

Next, we had the RBI Governor, Dr. D Subbarao on campus to talk about the impact of the recent crisis on India and our future growth.

Dr. D Subbarao @ ISB

Then we had the ISB Leadership Summit, ISB’s flagship event with over 30 speakers coming over to speak on multiple panels, all on a single day. It was an interesting experience, with the sad part being the choices we needed to make on which discussion to attend. I settled for a very interesting panel discussion where Mr. B S Nagesh, the MD of Shopper’s Stop, spoke on his experience with Indian Retail and its growth over the years.

Mr. Nagesh on Indian Retail

Then of course, we also had ISB Day celebrations as ISB turned 8, with a cultural program over the weekend as well, with some great performances by students, staff, families, you name it!

ISB Day- The Acapella Band!

In between we also had the finals of the iDiya, the social entrepreneurship competition, with teams of working professionals from all over India competing, and the top 6 teams attending mentoring workshops at ISB. One of the highlights of the competition was the session on Responsible Leadership by Rahul Bose, who besides being an actor, is involved in a lot of different things, from the Indian rugby team to his NGO.

In addition, pre-placement talks have started, with companies coming to campus almost everyday to deliver their pitches. There are some really interesting roles up for grabs, and resumes are being polished, and interviews being prepared for.

And last, but definitely NOT the least, we have Solstice 2009 this weekend. The biggest fun event of the year, when ISB alums from all over come back to school for 3 days of partying with the current batch.

WHEW! So much for being short, I am already out of breath.

Oh, and this is just a single term at ISB!

- Jasnoor

Class of 2010

ISB promotes re-marriages. Especially when the friends missed out on the first one due to a cramped schedule.

Nikhil, a batchmate, got married to Priyanka on 27th of November, but only a handful of us could attend the wedding due to classes. We missed out but we decided that we could not let the schedule get the better of us!!

What do we do? Not too difficult. We arrange for a second one!! Ghodi, dholak, varmala et al. Of course, no celebration at ISB can be complete without the customary dunking

So there you had it. Last Sunday, after the ISB Day celebrations (ISB completed 8 years this December), we took out a baarat for the bride and the groom from one of the hostels to the Recreation Center. Since ISB treats both genders fairly, it was the bride on the horse for half the time, after which she got a chance to dance in her own baarat!! After an hour of (if I may add the word insane) dancing on the roads and obstructing whatever little traffic we have at ISB, we had the varmala ceremony followed by the dunking and cake cutting. Another reason for the extended celebrations was that a batch mate, Supratibh, has recently become a proud father.

And as always, a picture is worth a thousand words, but a video many more!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s wishing Nikhil and Priyanka all the happiness in the world!!

- Jasnoor & Amit

Class of 2010

The weekends are much more hectic, with multiple assignments due early in the mornings. Most nights are spent completing the assignments, with scenes of people running all the way to the boxes placed in the atrium to submit them at the last minute, to people sitting on the submission box to stop anyone taking the box away till their group arrives after printing the assignment! Time, however, is snatched away for outings after a night-out or suddenly formed movie plans.

The second part of life here is the social part. This includes all the speaker sessions we keep having on campus, with a choice often required between multiple sessions going on simultaneously. That’s when you need to prioritise ruthlessly. Of course, then there are all the cultural events, weekend parties and short outings to just chill out and relax. And yes, we have a dedicated Student Life Council charged with organising such events, and they really do one helluva job!!

The third and equally important [Editor’s note: Yeah, right!!] part of life here is…. sleep. Yes, something that we get precious little of much of the time. On an average, so long as you manage 5-6 hours you are good. This is also the most flexible component in the course, and the only place where you can compromise.

You can decide that you don’t care much about your grades, but that doesn’t mean you can just chill out. Attending classes is compulsory, and the same is the case with the assignments, unless, of course, you want to risk failing the course.

What invariably ends up happening is that sleep is usually the only thing you can be flexible on if you want to do everything else. For example, today there was an interactive session with Rahul Bose. So in addition to classes, studying/preparing reports and the session, if I want to write this post, that’s another half an hour of sleep sacrificed.

-Jasnoor

Class of 2010

It is a time for the class of 2005 to have their fifth year reunion and for the class of 2009 to have a homecoming of sorts in what promises to be three intense days of nostalgia, parties, fun events, chaos, mayhem and high quality entertainment.

In order to keep yourself posted about the latest happenings and updates regarding Solstice 2009, please check out the following links:

The official Solstice 2009 website: http://www.isb.edu/solstice2009/

The Solstice 2009 twitter page: http://twitter.com/Solstice2009

The Solstice 2009 Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ISB-Solstice-2009/178906826548?ref=nf

Of course, you can rest assured, Dear Reader, that the weblog will be updated with relevant information as well, but those other links are way better for periodic snippets to keep yourself constantly in the know.

There’s no line at the cafeteria during lunch time. In fact, yesterday, he took our order token with him to the kitchen and our order was brought to our table! No shouting of “token number 7!” What a luxury! No line at Sipz (the new juice bar). I tried another interesting concoction there – carrot, orange, honey and flaxseeds. It was pretty good actually. You bump into the odd one or two students loitering around. What are you doing on campus? I ask. It’s either the Marketing Research project, or the exams which extended till Friday (Global Operations) for them, giving them hardly any time to travel, so they stuck around.

My son had a field day yesterday. He was running around in the Atrium, in the hallways – all that clean, empty space for himself, shouting out and listening to his echo. I wonder if we adults would also do the same when we see open spaces but for our conditioned behavior! My cousins visited me yesterday, and as expected, they were greatly impressed by the ISB campus (it never fails!) I tell them, somewhat woefully, that yes, ISB has all the facilities in the world, just no time to enjoy them!

Term-6 is beginning tomorrow. Wow, term-6! And then only 2 more terms to go after that! These days, I’ve already started to visualize April 3^rd (our graduation day!). But there’s so much more to accomplish before then; much more to enjoy, much more to internalize. I am fully aware that this type of extended freedom that I am having at ISB (freedom from work, from the mundane outside world) is something that I will never again have until I retire! And so yet again, I vow to myself to enjoy this freedom, one day at a time, till April 3^rd. Amen!

- Sankar G Vyakaranam

Ikshaa 2009 has two panel discussions – ‘Evolution of Brands’ and ‘Bending Global Brands’ with speakers that are the who’s who in the world of marketing.

For more in Ikshaa 2009, please visit the Ikshaa microsite, and if you are in Hyderabad and are interested in being part of the audience, do turn up. It promises to be both interesting and enlightening. ]]> http://isbweblog.com/2009/11/06/ikshaa-2009-marketing-club-conclave/feed/ 1 http://isbweblog.com/2009/11/03/the-beginning-of-the-end/ http://isbweblog.com/2009/11/03/the-beginning-of-the-end/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:35:19 +0000 Class of 2010 http://isbweblog.com/?p=1640 I don’t know about you, but this is how my mind works – say I board a train from Hyderabad to Delhi. Until about the half-way point, I am thinking about Hyderabad (the place I left) while I make myself comfortable in the train compartment. But once the train crosses the mid-way point, my mind automatically switches to Delhi! I no longer think of Hyderabad and start thinking about Delhi and about what I’d be doing once I get there.

The half-way point in a journey is when the mind automatically switches from thinking about the past to thinking about the future! Well, that’s what’s happening to me in Term-5. And that’s why I call it the ‘beginning of the end’ term!

Out of your comfort-zone: Term-5 is so very different from the core terms. It is very challenging in terms of orienting yourself to it. Different classmates, different timings and different study groups, it’s all very disconcerting! (The first 4 terms are standardized and starting Term-5, you choose your classes/electives). It took me a few days just to figure out which class has what deliverables, and what study group am I in! And ‘a few days’ in ISB is 1/3^rd of the term, so imagine the pace! (How come we were not adequately warned about this term!?) The classes are great though. And since you choose your classes, you’ll mostly enjoy them (at least I do!).

Placements fever: Alums have always been telling us that the most stressful part of ISB will be the placement season, and I can almost sense it. The placements season is starting off, with international companies posting jobs, the pre-placement talks (PPTs) beginning to happen, and the students getting into placement preparation mode. So, while you are taking your specialized courses and orienting yourself, you simultaneously start preparing for placements (which is a whole different ball game!).

And more: There are several other important ISB events that are happening this season. We just had a Business Technology Conclave, and next week we have Ikshaa – the Marketing Club’s flagship event.

So, we have all these important industry events going on, new classes where we continue to learn new things and new classmates/study groups we adjust to, placement preparation, and of course, socializing (or networking, if you prefer)!

Wow! And how do we manage all this?! I don’t know, but we somehow do!

-Sankar G Vyakaranam

The best part of the weekend was the Halloween party organised by the Student Life Council at the open air 08 Lounge. It was the largest party yet, with lots of alums turning up as well. People turned up in proper Halloween attire, with lots of thought having gone into the costumes. There was food, drinks, as well a rocking DJ…

The Open Air Dance Floor

Halloween Decorations

While the party literally went on till the break of dawn, we left at around 4:30 A.M., for a long drive on the smooth road to the Airport!! Its rare that you get time for such things at ISB, traveling with friends on a long road with nothing in particular to think about, just driving to nowhere for the heck of it.

I finally got to bed at around 6 A.M., and was up running to a meeting at 10:30 A.M. Some things never change…..

- Jasnoor, Class of 2010