Toast: Here’s to the health, wealth and success of batch 2008 at ASB

It’s finally that time of the year when we bid farewell… This past year has been very eventful. You gave us a very warm (?! :)) welcome and I remember trying to match faces with the names I found on Orkut… successful in some attempts, fumbling with others… Telling us how to bend around rules, warning us against strict faculty, encouraging us to brave everyday chores, lending us your experienced hands and grey cells in managing the two most important events- UTSAV and Pragati 08, those little important things about hostel wardens and their rules, the good ( :P ) hang outs in the City, the pending placement treats, the jokes, the leg-pulling, the selection of members for the different committees, the stress interviews for the forum selection...

True, life at Amrita has not always been rosy. There were times when there was panic, worry, grief and sorrow. It was all bearable because we could come to you at anytime. You were there for us when we screwed up in our many tasks. We have enjoyed being here and a major part is because of that extra mile you went to make us feel at home.

I would like to mention a few names here…

KK, the first in your batch I met on Orkut. We chatted often. He was then interning at Hyderabad. Then there were Anu, Anju, IMX (I remember, Ivan Michael Xavier, commonly referred to as topi wale.. well, havent heard anybody call him that except me! :P), Anson, Sujith… they were my first seniors frens at ASB.

The memories are still afresh. Deepak, Anson, Sajith, Sujith Anand and Sujith were just outside library… they called me to have a talk… ( no ragging, remember? ;)) They asked me questions after questions… it was a tougher panel than my interview panel to join ASB! Amardeep walked by and said- “Arre bechari ko chod do yaar.. poor thing…” I felt so grateful then :) But the session was fun in a way and I felt happy! :P

My professional advertisers Jake and Bitu… the pains they took to get my shampoo campaign going… wow, thanks guys… the number of takes and retakes… the publicity… Jake’s coffee days out always ended up in half a glass of coffee for me!

Darshan and Prashant… the duo love pulling my legs… they counsel, joke, play pranks, tease and help… I have learnt a few tricks from them too. Thank you, teachers! :) Btw, I was in their BAC project as well… :)

Anu(who used to call me her favourite junior early in teh year... wonder if i still got that title!;)), Anju, Jyothi, Raji chechi… thanks for the movies… and for always being there in rough times. I remember my early visits to Anu’s room... I remember the first bet I won was with Anu… she still owes me a treat for it. :)

The counsellors- Navneet, Bikash, Prejith… I personally want to thank you guys for standing by me through rough patches during UTSAV and later. Those were times I desperately needed a sense of direction. Thanks for being there. It’s a small word… but is meant is all sincerity… Thanks.

I know I talk 19 to the dozen… but I didn’t think I’d find competition… Jeevitha broke my belief…! I have the right “vaayaadi” match now! :) thanks. I remember the infinite times she has asked me to visit a doctor. I assure her now that I shall visit him sometime… er.. soon..! :)

Prejith is almost the mobile mind-reader! He’s always found out when I’m down. He’ll just walk up and say, “what happened? It’s ok,, come, let’s have something in the canteen”. He calls me a cry baby… which we still argue upon!!

Rajamadhuri, Amardeep, Rachna, Jeevitha, Raji chechi… my lunch mates… :) They are usually there at the mess when I’m there for lunch or dinner. They filled in my MR pretest questionnaire… thanks a bunch for being there… personally and officially... :)

Harish, Kalyan and Dinesh (my mentor.. he came to know that a few days ago.. :))… the trio at different times asked me the same question- “You know Telugu? How come? ” (déjà vu?!) Thanks for talking to me in Telugu now and then… you have helped me er… improve my proficiency in the language…! :)

Nishi and Sharath, the CV experts helped me better mine… and here I thought I hadn’t done much with life… and they made my CV look like I’m the most creditable person around.. :) thanks.

Shruthi and I are similar in some ways… the way we look at life, for example… I believe she’s some kind of a good omen. If I see her early in the day, my day goes good… :) And I got her to believe that about me as well…! (manipulative, eh?! hehe) :) Thanks for giving me extra time to submit my testimonial…

Sonya, the soft spoken, always smiling, friendly and cute senior… :) yeah, she is one of the cutest ever. She’s rare. She always tries saving some coffee for me in the canteen.. from the evil clutches of the Villains who just wait for me to place my order… Thanks! :)

Binny, Bishwesh, Nilesh, Hardhik… they have been my hindi gurus… er.. hindi, proper and mumbaiya, the mamu language, punjaban hindi… you name it! The daily dosages of one funny msg… :) Gandiva’s star voice, the diamond merchant’s promise… the good morning mamu’s… thanks guys for all the things you do! Hum aapke aabhaari rahenge… bole toh, apun ko tumse thank you bolna mangta hai :)

Poornima and Rajeshwari- the two most inspirational writers to me at ASB… the media avoiding, camera hating duo…! :) The celebs avoid the paparazzi… (I am the paparazzi with the hated camera.. for those of you who didn’t figure it out! :) ) Awesome writing… do continue to write on the ASB blog… :)

I think I’ve written too much already… I’ll try to conclude now… I have had an amazing year with you guys. I have learnt how to enjoy life and work… You are one of the finest batches… (I don’t have any other to compare with! :P hehe ) No, on a serious note, Your batch has always stood by us… taught us many things, reprimanded us when there was need, lent us movies, videos, assignments and shoulders when the pressure got to us… I want to thank everybody in your batch for the wonderful time you gave us. I will remember the times we spent for a long time to come. I wish each and every one of you a very happy, prosperous and successful future. May everything you wish for come true :) One special mention- Rajeshwari- Wish you a very happy and blissful married life. :) Wishing others a blissful married life too.. whenever you marry! :)

Stay in touch everybody and join our Alumni on the 10th of May, 2008. :) Good luck for everything you do… Until later, take care and don’t miss us too much…! :)

(PS: Sincere apologies to those whose names I’ve missed… and to those who I might have hurt unintentionally in the last year… )

Immortality

There’s a song by Celine Dion, a ‘feat’ with the Beegees, that goes by the Title ‘Immortality’… :)

Everytime I hear people discuss about how ‘College life’ is ending … I think of how this chapter of my Life is coming to an end, that’s the song that begins along with it… In my Head…

Some things are immortal… You see, there is nothing as binding as experiences together… As joy and pain shared…

That is the uniqueness of such a Programme… That revolves so much around the people… Batchmates… Teachers… Staff.

Experience is indelible. You can forget names. Dates. But never people.

In these 2 years, we’ve seen ourselves change… Evolve to the place… to the Work… to the schedules… to the people… and to this new way of Life. We’ve praised it, cursed it, enjoyed and suffered it. :)

That sort of experience stays with one for a Lifetime. Take it from a person who’s Life is.. has.. will change a lot. Some things are indelible.

An M.B.A with a 100 other people… each of whom will start to seem like family. In fact, you can tell who is talking even if your back is to them. :) You can tell them by their laugh. By their joke. You can tell which Professor is around the corner by the Silence they generate. :)

More than just familiarity, we have all been moulded… And we carry with us so many impressions… Of people, Life… from our time here. All the people one meets, and usually the smallest incidents, will shape us… The guy who sniggers from the corner when you drop your bag and the one who picks it up for you… And the next one who tells you you’re having the tag of your dress outside. :) Or the one who guesses you haven’t slept in 3 days. :)

I have learnt so much here. And I can tell that Im going to spend lifetime re-meeting all of my Batchmates/Professors… And Im going to remember in a flash all the memories associated with them… have this huge smile on my face and perhaps they will still involuntarily call me ‘Ms.Mani!’.

Hehe. Gosh! Its been quite a road.


And Thank God for technology and social networking sites. :) See you all as a picture on Orkut after May 10th!!

Until then, Hope God is with all if us. May our shadows never grow less. And may we never lose that irrepressible tagline of ours : (God knows how I thought if it, now!)

M.B.A: ‘Mind-blowing Asbians!’

Hehe :D

Good Luck all. Bye for now.

‘Immortality… I’ll take this journey to eternity… I’ll take the Memory of you and me… Inside :)… We don’t say Goodbye… We don’t say Goodbye’

Back From ESOMAR Asia-Pacific Conference 2008 @ Singapore!!!!

hey all dear Asbians...

I was so skeptical initially when i came to know about this MR conference being organised by ESOMAR to be held in Singapore. between assignments I was not sure if I wanted to go through the selection procedure, but well thanks to some special friends i decided to go through it...and guess what ended up being the only person being selected from India for the conference!!!!

Well I landed in Singapore on the 7th of April 2008. it was an exciting yet unnerving experience to be all alone at the huge Changi International Airport of Singapore!!! But I guess the excitement and the thrill of being in a new place all alone killed the fear. I stayed at my aunty's place throughout my visit... On 7th first thing i did was meet up with similar representatives as me from other countries for lunch as we were supposed to report at Ritz Carlton - the venue of the conference only at 2:00 p.m.

It was so nice to meet 5 other kids like me from 5 different cultures...we all became great friends within no time enjoying the similarities that we shared and laughing off the dissimilarities. Our liking each other was important as we were to be together throughout the conference. From left in the picture its me, Ronaldo (China), Amy (Taiwan), Iin (Indonesia), Neil (Phillippines), and Jason (Vietnam)

Well myself and my fellow friends from other countries had a simple role to play at the conference - help out in a small way the ESOMAR representatives and most importantly LEARN from the eminent speakers who had come for the conference from across the Asia-Pacific region. The actual conference started only on the 8th and went on till 9th evening after which we were left free to enjoy Singapore...My flight was for 10th evening so I had plenty of time to enjoy!!!

Well before i talk about the enjoyment part let me share a few learnings i had from the conference... Firstly I felt very proud and lucky to be an Indian as more than 50% of the papers discussed were on India, how India was growing faster than most economies around the world and how to successfully attract the changing Indian consumer. China was next highly discussed topic, in fact there was even a debate as to which country is going to lead the future!!!!

Most discussed topics were the different ways to segment the Indian consumer and looking beyond the traditional demographic or income segmentations. it was discussed that segmentation has been so overused that it has led to hyper-segmentation and death of mass market concept!!! One form of segmentation discussed was

1. Partition Generation (The consumer who witnessed the partition and freedom from British rule)
2. Transition Generation (The consumer who witnessed the liberalisation reforms of the 90's)
3. No Strings Generation (The consumer born with the silver spoon in his/her mouth. The consumer of the growing India)

This segmentation for instance categorises consumers in a different way and helps the marketer sell goods with the right message. For e.g. the no string consumer would expect from the marketing communications about the product not just info but imageries as to how the product will add to his style and lifestyle... this was just one of the segmemtations discussed.

Further there was a growing emphasis on the huge youth market in countries across the Asia pacific region, particularly India and China, how their needs are different from traditional youth in these countries, how internet has become an important part of their lives and how they are moving more towards the western culture!!! All this implying adoption of totally new strategies for marketers to reach these new gen consumers.

Also discussed were new form of techniques to gather info on consumer behaviour like video ethnography where a video camera is used to capture a consumers lifestyle to gain insights about his behaviour and attitude to products.

there was a lot more discussed which i shall share with all of u once I reach planet e. It was a great learning experience and has only further increased my passion for marketing. i would like to thank Mr. Pravin Shekhar of dexterity who sent the invite to our college among others and Deepak Sir who actually made things happen!!!!

Finally about my fun in Singapore...Its a great place...very clean and just about every place is air conditioned even the cabs (generally Mercs or BMW's). I guess there is no concept of stairs as there are escalators everywhere. its a small city, well managed and very very safe:) there are some great places to see and I managed to see most of it in the little time I had...

For the record there are places like China Town which resemble a mini China, Little India which closely resembles india, and the best one Santosa a little island a total fun place...in santosa u have a huge Merlion structure, an underground waterworld, cable car, a clean beach and a lot more...with some great friends Singapore is a place worth visiting!!!

Finally Singapore was:
A time I will never forget
Moments i will forever cherish
Learning I will always treasure
and Friends who will remain very dear....

The worlds we miss.. and those we take for granted

Others have written, more beautifully than I ever can about how this place and its people will be remembered. 116 hearts will soon fill with feelings dense as the time comes close for us to part. But its not the same feeling that makes my heart dense this moment. How many times before have I said I'll miss? But how many times have I known what I would miss while fully in it?

I am not sure if this is a popular feeling. but it should not be rare. Two years ago when I stepped, the mind was filled, though not full, with things I will miss from back home. I have wished that I knew what mother's food or an evening at the beach with friends meant, if it were to disappear. Well I never did while I was in it. Now that it dawns on me the things I will miss at ASB, I wish I had enjoyed it to the fullest, rather than taking them for granted. It was always who said what yesterday, or what submission is due tomorrow. It never was me beneath the elephant hills, now. I guess unless we are aware, the cycle will go on. When will we learn to be in the NOW?

Next 30 days I have to take in, the moments this place wants to offer us. I have ignored it enough. Have you?