Adarsh has seen the high points of being a successful director, having won many awards, and the lowest points too, where everyone, including his own wife, loses faith in him. Adarsh vows to come back and win the audiences over with his next film “Kashmakash”. He is proud, egoistic and extremely passionate. He needs to make this movie perfect. And when after 32 takes and two and a half years of hard work he cannot get the most important climax scene right and he sees his world crumble around him, the question arises, how far will he go for his passion?

The first half of the play is carried forward by light, witty and at times downright hilarious dialogues between the in love cheerful Mumbaiya spot boy Ali (Avisheke Barua) and the adorable Bihari hairstylist Shalini (Shalini Verma). Most people who have done plays realize the difficulty in transforming into a different person, to let go of oneself and be someone completely different. If you think that is difficult, imagine the plight of hero, heroine and villain of the movie who played two different characters on the stage! Ujjwal Singh, the romantic, sappy, straightforward hero Akash and off screen the arrogant Aftab Khan. Nikita Barmecha, the sweet and simple Simran and off screen the bollywood family heiress, Sweety. Nitin Aggarwal, the villainous Vikram and the budding actor Puneet Deshmukh off screen.

The story is helped along at various stages by level headed Sameer (Ishwar Saxena) the assistant director who manages everything behind the scenes, the hot-shot producer Roma (Neha Singhal) who must keep the budget under check and keep tabs on the director, Sweety’s mummyji, Dimpyji (Arpita Patra) who is fussy, annoying and highly animated and who needs everything in the movie geared towards making her daughter a superstar and Ajay (Saurabh Sinha) who plays the assistant to Vikram in the movie.

As the story develops, we see different parts of the movie being shot. However, the story gets stuck on this one scene, the climax. The villainous Vikram who has brought people’s lives in danger in trying to make money is confronted by his best friend and business partner Akash who cannot believe Vikram’s betrayal. As the scene grows, so does the anger and the frustration of both parties involved. Eventually, as the scene escalates and as Vikram is shouting and cursing Akash, Akash shoots Vikram. The scene seems to be an amazing one.. but.. CUT. And Adarsh Bhandari cuts the scene.. but why? Because the scene isn’t perfect. The emotions by Aftab just aren’t right. Re-shoot the scene. Take 5.. Take 6….. Take 31…

This goes on for a while and after the 32^nd take Adarsh just can’t take it anymore. He explodes on stage. Aftab retaliates, who does Adarsh think he is? Roma cuts in, what is wrong with Adarsh? Dimpy shouts, finish the movie now… Adarsh leaves frustrated..no one understands him. And then the question lingers in the air… What does Adarsh do now? He’s at wits end. The next day the police inspector (Rahul Shresth) walks in accusing Aftab of killing Puneet. Then Adarsh takes over and reveals that he had killed Puneet and will kill Aftab too if he doesn’t complete the scene. Adarsh goes psychotic while Aftab nears breaking down. Adarsh sets the scene up in the exact same manner that the climax scene is… The scene ends with Aftab shooting Adarsh and his reaction being caught on tape to complete the perfect scene. But the question remains.. is Adarsh alive? Did he play a trick on Aftab to get him to shoot the scene? Or did he actually sacrifice his life to fulfil his passion?

The writing implies that Adarsh wins the award for best director.. but is he even alive to collect it? Regardless, the film is a success and Adarsh’s Kashmakash is over and his dream is fulfilled. He is redeemed in the eyes of the world.

This play was a play that everyone would enjoy. It wasn’t an easy thing to do considering that this was an original script. Written by Asif Rizwi, Avantika Tomar and Rahul Shresth the script had all the elements needed to entertain a crowd that consisted of B school students from around the country and professors of IIM Calcutta. The script had inspiring dialogues (anyone who saw the play cannot forget “Baap ka kutta”), some very enjoying light funny moments (by Avisheke and Shalini), a full-on bollywood romantic scene (played out beautifully amidst the hooting and cheering by the hero and heroine of the movie), another full-on bollywood sagai scene (with some brilliant dancing by Namrata and Geeta) and a high intensity show down that showed the audience a range of emotions (played outstandingly by Ujjwal and Nitin).

However, there were a few moments in the play that went beyond entertaining. They were scenes that took one’s breath away. So as to not get the audience bored, the climax scene was played once in fast forward mime. For the first 5 seconds the audience couldn’t comprehend why Aftab and Puneet suddenly went silent.. But when they fully understood what was going on, there was a collective gasp through the audience and applause that just didn’t seem to end. Another scene was when Adarsh gets frustrated and gets drunk and Sameer tries to handle him. Oh by the way, if it isn’t apparent till now.. I played Adarsh Bhandari and I really hope I did justice to this scene. Because when I first read the scene I just went, “F*** this is brilliant.”

Under the superb direction of Asif Rizwi, Avantika Tomar and Kerishma Malik and the brilliant lights and production of Vivek Bijlwan, Tania Benjamin and Zubin Ray, these words written on paper were brought to life to be one of the best plays ever produced at IIM Calcutta. And I’m extremely grateful and proud to be able to be part of it!

Photo Credits: Vaibhav Gulati

Sir, you’ve had a glittering career full of professional achievements – and hope it continues.  But what do you think is your biggest personal achievement?

My twin sons.(Laughs). On a personal front, I speak with pride, of their success. They’re both in New York – Ishan is working on a novel, and Kanishk is a journalist – both turning out to be very good writers. What more personal accomplishment can you ask for.

Speaking of that, where do you see your writing career going?

At the moment its going nowhere because I’m not getting enough time to write!!

I’ve been a columnist for newspapers in India and abroad, and that’s all I’ve done for a while. I’m currently working on a book about our nation and its place in the 21^st century world. Now that book, like any other, requires application of your mind in some way, and sadly, I just have not been able to spend much time on it. So, I have to admit that it’s a bit of a struggle. But, I never want to be a former writer. One day, I’ll get used to being a former minister, but not a former writer.

Your last novel, ‘Riot’ was published almost 10 years back. Can your readers expect a work of fiction anytime soon?

Not immediately, because fiction requires not just time, but some space inside your head too- A space to create and inhabit an alternative moral universe, one whose realities have to be consistent in your own mind. And you can’t allow the spell to be broken by intrusions of reality too much. You can’t easily write a fragment of a novel and return to it eight weeks from now. You simply find you have to reinvent the novel each time you do that.  A politician like me has to travel day in and day out, bring work home, stay away from home for a while – those kinds of interruptions are deadly for writing fiction. And I found that an enormous struggle.

So, if I write now, I’d say its more easy to, or I am more likely to write non-fiction. Because non-fiction, its interruptible. Your life is non-fiction. (smiles). Like somebody once said, “I didn’t realize I’ve been speaking in prose all my life”. So even if I interrupt writing (non-fiction), and I’ve been doing it for a while now, I feel I can go back to it at a later point.

Sir, Would you like to speak about your fondness for PG Wodehouse, which somehow reflects in ‘The Great Indian Novel’, perhaps the most celebrated of your works?

(It reflects) Only in sections. (Laughs)

I love Wodehouse – his tremendous escapism, tremendous humor and tremendous sense of alternative reality. And I love his style- his use of language. The ability to make people laugh- its such a gift. Hilarious situations, very cleverly contrived comical plots, and great writing – all of it come together in his books.

As for ‘The Great Indian Novel’, I was once reading a translation of the Mahabharata by the Calcutta professor P Lal who uses a very racy and modern style. I must say that I was struck by the immediacy of the narrative. I said -“I’m reading a 2000 year story that reads as if it could’ve been written yesterday.” And then I thought –“Hey, what if it were written yesterday? What would a contemporary Veda Vyas write about the great events of his time?” So, it started as a sort of playful experiment, taking the frame narrative of the Mahabharata, and some of its style and digressions, its philosophies and situations, and applying them to a retelling of a subject which had fascinated me most- 20^th century Indian political history.  I think it has really worked – the book is now in its 42^nd edition, the new generation is loving it. Readers who weren’t even born when it was written tell me how enjoyable they find it. So what could be more gratifying!

We hope you enjoyed your brief stay at IIM Calcutta. Do you have a message for us?

The message is to be the best you can possibly be. Whether you become a manager, or a professor or a writer – it doesn’t really matter what you are; what matters most is how good you are at it. The worst thing you can do is let yourself down. Do well in your life, and do something good for the country. Best of luck!!

Sir, it’s a privilege to have you in our midst today. Thanks a lot for your words and your time.

Dr. Shashi Tharoor was at IIM Calcutta for a talk organised as part of Intaglio 2012. More on the event at http://iimc-intaglio.com/

It’s not that I have personally experienced all these things but there are social movements, changes and reactions to certain policies which are continuously happening around us. I am aware of them, affected by them and react to them like any common person would and whenever there is a possibility of a story in any of these issues I try to work it out.

Recently, there has been a spate of scams in which businessmen and politicians have been closely involved. What are your thoughts on this issue and are you planning to make a movie on this theme? 

Every film that I make, when I show the uglier face of society I show corruption too-it’s a recurring theme in my films; but, a special film on just corruption in politics or society is not really something I think can be made into 2 and a half hour film or story.

Not on just corruption, sir, specifically on the linkage between politicians and the corporate world..

Ho ga hi wo!!! Paisa jahaan par hai wahaan chori hogi hi !!! (That would always happen. After all where there is money there would also be some theft!!)

Your NGO Anubhooti has been spearheading growth in infrastructure, health care and vocational training facilities in Bihar. Can you share some details about the activities of your NGO and what kind of roadblocks have you run into while trying to deal with these systemic problems?

See, we work in a limited manner. Like, we fix targets, collect funds and complete those targets. That’s how we work. Like when there were Kosi floods we had the target of looking after 5000 displaced people who were living like refugees. We took care of them for 6 months and eventually led them back to their village. I had collected money from all over the world and eventually we were left with some kitty. We decided to build a village which would be flood resistant. A model village for the poorest of the people i.e. around 140 houses were built. Similarly there are certain cases where monetary support for healthcare is required and we provide it. That’s how we operate. It’s not an on-going process where there’s an office open every day. We identify targets and then we create the mechanism, get the funds and then complete it.

Any roadblocks you faced in this direction?

Jab aap kisi se paise nahi mangoge to roadblock nahi honge. Kyun honge? ( When you don’t ask for money there won’t be roadblocks. Why would there be?)   It’s only when you ask for money from the government that you become accountable to them (on spending the funds). You don’t do that and there are no roadblocks.

Photo credits: Pranab Salian

Sir your evolution as a director, i.e. you started off with documentaries, made the legendary TV series ‘Mungeri Lal ke Haseen Sapne’ and then movies. How has the journey been?

Basically everything is the same. You need to communicate to and engage the audience, whether you make a documentary, TV serial,  or a feature film. The challenge is always there. That’s ultimately what one tries to achieve. I think I’ve been very fortunate in that most of my works have connected with people. That’s it.

Do you think today’s movies are moving away from the song and dance culture?

No, I think there is still a market for such movies. In fact, that market is still big and growing. Basically, any person or viewer has three kinds of requirements to fulfil. It is body, mind and soul in decreasing order of preference. A person craves to fulfil his/her bodily requirements first and then moves on to mind and soul. It is an interesting marketing concept. Take the analogy of a person visiting a bookstore. The books like those of Sidney Sheldon, that titillate you at some level, are displayed at the front of the store. Most of the customers would generally buy from this section. A person seeking to read serious literature like the autobiographies would have to search a little more. Books on spirituality would be generally kept even further from the entrance of a book store. Similarly the first and foremost expectation of a viewer from a movie is entertainment.

I ‘d like to narrate an interesting anecdote. I won my first National award for Damul in 1985. The story was about a bonded labourer who is forced to steal for his landlord. We had borrowed 12 lakhs from the government for the movie. As the distributors were reluctant to screen it, we were looking at ways to recover the cost. We got in touch with the Government and they agreed to broadcast it on Doordarshan under the category of national award winning films. This got us 12 lakhs  and that’s how I paid my loan back.  On the day Damul was being screened, I invited my friends and relatives over to my home. My bai(maid) also dressed up for the occasion and joined us. After the movie, when everybody else was congratulating me, my maid quietly left without a word and started washing dishes in the kitchen. I later asked her whether she liked the movie. I thought she must have loved it since it was relevant to her background. The reply she gave was extremely interesting. She said “Yes, it was good. But next time please make a ‘picture’”. She didn’t consider it a movie at all!!

When the audience spend time and money on a ticket, they want to enjoy watching it. So there’s a huge market, and will always be, for movies that entertain.

So is this demand for entertainment that contributed to successes like Kolaveri di? 

Photo credits: Pranab Salian

Kolaveri is entertaining and it has seen immense success. But, I think the biggest fallacy of today is that people analyse and celebrate successes more frequently than failures. Before a child is born today, his parents chart out a success plan. This is applicable everywhere in the world, not just in India. The expectations are high and there is no scope for failure. This diminishes the creative space for the child. We should analyse failures too. There is so much to learn from failures. The day we start celebrating our failures and learning from them, we will be much better off as a society.

Sir, one last question. Some people make movies for appreciation, some for themselves and some others to change the society. What is your motivation behind choosing this profession?

All that you said, plus money.  (laughs)

Thanks a lot for your time and the engaging conversation.

Prakash Jha was at IIM Calcutta for a talk organised as part of Intaglio 2012. More on the event at http://iimc-intaglio.com/

People call you Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Is there a reason behind having two ‘Sri’s prefixing the name?

(laughs) I thought 3 was too much. So. Usually this country has reverence to put 3 Sris, 108 Sris etc. I thought that’s too much. I said don’t keep me too high like an emerald Buddha Whom nobody can reach.

Photo credits: Pranab Salian

Your organization has touched more than 300 million people in 30 years with members all over the world, which is a tremendous growth. What is the secret of  ’Art of Living’ that draws millions to the institution?

The answer is quite simple. Because our program is very effective, practical and answers the questions faced by today’s generation.

As a management student, I would like to know how you achieved this stupendous growth. Was it organized and pre-planned?

It’s a matter of study. You (IIM Calcutta), as a B-school can do some research on that. An institute in Netherlands and also somebody from the US are studying our organisation as a model.

We have a club called “Sattva” in our college which conducts Yes+ course. Many students take part in it every year. So how important do you think Sudarshana Kriya will be for them in their future corporate life?

Sudarshana Kriya is a unique breathing exercise which harmonizes the mind,body and emotions. For working people, its like a tool that can be used whenever they are stressed or when burnout situations come up. It will keep them energized on a daily basis.

Do you have a message for the youth in this New Year?

(smiles) IIM Calcutta is a prestigious institute with a lot of its alumni at high positions. This country belongs to you. Own it right away. And I want you all to take up steps to curb corruption and increase the agricultural production in our country. Food security is one of the major issues plaguing India today.

Thank you so much Guruji for taking out time to visit IIM Calcutta and having a chat with the students. It’s a real pleasure meeting you.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was at IIM Calcutta for a talk organised as part of Intaglio 2012. More on the event at http://iimc-intaglio.com/

My Intaglio story as Event Coordinator (Wizards of Biz)

“The sixth team is not gonna come in. We’ll have to manage with five.”

“Are you kidding me. How do we do that??? The game has been designed for 6.”

Frantic calls, changing numbers, working again on formulas and the model and making sure that we have the event ready before time for five teams. When you’re just about to get the feeling that everything is under control,  there’s something that brings your world crashing down and Intag just proved to be just such an experience for me.

Calling up teams to make sure that they will be in campus on time, making sure that all logistics sorted out, managing multiple schedules of people so that everyone can participate in the event- Intag for me has been an event where people are driven to take ownership and they ‘”Just Do It!”

Intaglio, IIM Calcutta’s Annual International B-School meet, is the biggest B-school summit in Asia.
More at http://iimc-intaglio.com/

Antyodaya

Antyodaya is a unique international social project event where students from institutes in the country and abroad get an opportunity to present their work on wide recognized platform. The event saw international participants – from institutes like North Western University and University of Pittsburg. The projects targeted variety of practical issues and possible approaches to them. Parimal Lokhande, from IIM Ahmedabad was adjudged the winner for his project “Business plan on developing microeconomics to reduce underemployment”. Apart from the competition, participants enjoyed the heritage tour of one of India’s oldest cities.

Consulting Knights

Consulting Knights saw participation of over 100 participants in the final round held today. The participants were questioned both extensively and intensively on their ideas about Rural Marketing.  Each final team was guided by a mentor working with Accenture and with expertise in “Rural marketing”. After the competitive pitch of cases, the team from IIM-A won the first place, while team Joka Warriors from IIM-C was the runner up. Thereafter Accenture executives talked about their experiences and experiments on “Rural Marketing”. To quote one of the participants – “Consulting Knights as much of an interaction as a competition”.

Market Place

Market Place, the primary marketing event of Intaglio, dwelt on the contemporary and relevant topic of Social Media Advertising. The competition required a complete social media marketing solution to the business cases. The teams came up with attractive integrated marketing plans for the same – however the team with best idea was chosen by executives from Pepsi. Team “Jokars” from IIMC was the winner and team “Cosmic Truth” from IIM-A was the runner up.

Wizards of Biz

The first round for Wizards of Biz had teams from various B-schools battle one another through an online real time business simulation. This was one of its kinds across India, being the only one business simulation game entirely designed, coded and maintained by the students of IIM Calcutta.  The Finale which took place today included rounds on interactive game theory and a real business case. The event associate Shell, picked up the best participants based on all the rounds conducted in the finale. Pritish Gandhi, Aayush Kapoor and Sadiq Siddiqui were the winning team members.

Chanakya

Chanakya is the first event of its kind – an event in which participants’ test their skills in developing, testing and defending their policies. This time, the participants had to conceptualize policies relating to carbon credits. The participants had to ensure both development and sustainability in the right balance. The implementation as well as issues were brought out and discussed during the finale; in the end Pritish Gandhi and Sadiq Siddiqui from IIMC were pronounced as ‘numero uno’.

Quizzical

Quizzical pulls corporates and students from all over India with its brain racking and interesting questions. Renowned quizmaster Souvik Basu captivated the attention of the audience with his spell binding and clever questions throughout the event. The corporates outwitted the students this time to win this much coveted quizzing honour.

Murphy’s Laugh

After initial rounds based on systems and technology, the finals of Murphy’s Laugh tested the project management, resource strategies of the candidates. 18 teams battled in the finals. The first position went to teams: Lord Labak Das, RazR ShaRp and Valkyrie.

Intaglio Experience and Student Leadership programmes

Intaglio had events specially for undergraduate students and aspiring business graduates. USIEF conducted workshop on education experience in US; and helped aspiring students with their queries regarding the courses, universities and opportunities. Group discussion workshop was conducted with few mock GDs. Few IIMC students who oversaw the GDs provided immediate feedback and tips to the participants.

Tomorrow – Day 3, being the final day of Intaglio,  has many exciting schedules are lined up.  Faridkot would be rocking on the Day 3 evening, to close the curtains of this year’s rocking Intaglio. But before that luminaries like Sri Sri Ravishankar of Art of Living and acclaimed film maker Prakash Jha would grace the campus. Day 3 would have also finals of few business events which will see the battle of the brilliant minds like what has been seen in the past 2 days of Intaglio 2012.

My Intaglio story as  Event coordinator (Great Innovation Challenge)

My story began with defining ‘innovation’, and the qualities one must possess to earn the word; this was followed by us (Ankit Fitkariwala, Vipul Nirwani and me) trying to convince ourselves that through an online format, that too of objective type, we could gauge how innovative, creative a participant is. After various arguments/discussions/ a few glitches in implementation, when the Senior Manager of Cognizant remarked “Can I have the presentations by all the teams and not just the winners? I wish to share the insights with my team working on the same case..”,

it all seemed worth it!

Intaglio, IIM Calcutta’s Annual International B-School meet, is the biggest B-school summit in Asia.
More at http://iimc-intaglio.com/

Billed as Asia’s largest business school summit, Intaglio had the best students from the best B-schools visiting campus today. In the span of a few hours, I met students from three continents, and of course almost all the IIMs. I enjoyed watching the best match wits against the brightest, but then I was expecting as much; after all Intaglio is the best B-school summit India has to offer!

Marketrix

The day started off with Marketrix, a digital marketing competition that was being run in partnership with an educational service provider called U: B Qool. Judged by Prof C. D. Mitra from IIM Calcutta, Marketrix contestants set about developing a marketing plan for the company. It was an insightful experience, seeing teams come up to different approaches to the same issue.

Modulus

The next event was Modulus, which was an interactive trading event, where teams of three contestants took part in a simulated securities trading game. The finance whiz-kids from IIM Rohtak won this one, but not being a fin guy myself, I couldn’t help but be in awe of all participants.

Olympus

After Modulus came the competition I was watching out for, Olympus. Being the flagship event of Intaglio, Olympus is a contest much vied-for. As such, it attracts strong participants from the world over, and it was a pleasure watching them compete in the initial rounds today. The first round was especially worth mentioning, since it was a bit of a Con – after the round was done it was declared to be an ‘icebreaker’ round meant to warm things up, and the actual contest was yet to start! There were quite a number of varied rounds; one involving role-play and acting skills, another a general knowledge quiz, a fun round involving Lego blocks, and a round of card games where street-smartness was rewarded, followed by another round of card games where trust was rewarded! The contest tried to test the adaptability of potential leaders, and it sure did succeed.

State of Affairs

State of Affairs, another competition, presented an interesting operations case study challenge formulated by IIM Calcutta Professor Partha Priya Datta, and judged by himself and Prof Balaram Aviatthur. This event was dominated by IIM Calcutta students.

Great Innovation Challenge

Another interesting case study event was Cognizant’s Great Innovation Challenge, where the contestants faced a real-life scenario about an unnamed American airline. The solutions that contestants came up with were so unique and insightful, I’m sure that some of them ought to be implemented by the company soon!

The Empires of the Mind

And then there was The Empires of the Mind, a fun, sporty challenge involving game theory in, well, games. The contest simulated the IPL bidding process, where teams tried to maximize their winnings in an IPL-style auction process.

The day wrapped up with a riveting Hindi murder-mystery play called Kashmakash, by students from IIM Calcutta’s Dramatics Cell, involving an over-ambitious film director who couldn’t cope with failure.

Speaking of mysteries and puzzles, I’m really looking forward to Quizzical, the quiz competition with fabled quizmaster Souvik Basu. That happens tomorrow, on the second day of Intaglio ’12. Hope to see you there!

]]> http://www.jokatimes.com/2012/01/07/intaglio-2012-day-1/feed/ 0 http://www.jokatimes.com/2012/01/06/intaglio-2012-inaugural-speech-by-vaibhav-joneja/ http://www.jokatimes.com/2012/01/06/intaglio-2012-inaugural-speech-by-vaibhav-joneja/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:11:17 +0000 JokaTimes http://www.jokatimes.com/?p=3142 In the words of Avadh Shah, suit-clad Joneja tried to woo his  female fans on Friday… Here is the transcript of the original speech..

It gives me immense pleasure to be addressing IIM Calcutta today evening, on behalf of a heritage it has always been and always will be proud of- Intaglio. And so it is with that pride that I stand before you, representing not just myself or Intaglio, but more importantly a proud and talented team of 134 members as we are once again set to conduct one of the biggest B-school summits in the country.

Before I start with the Event report, I would like to thank some critical elements without whom this summit would have remained a dream.

No one has been more supportive of this endeavor than the administration of this great institution. Thanks are due to our Director Prof. Shekhar Chaudhri, who has been a source of constant support and motivation. I would also like to thank Prof. Anindya Sen, who in his capacity as the Acting Director has supported us in ensuring the smooth running of this event.   Intaglio owes its success to our Faculty Advisor, Prof Sougata Ray. Prof. Ray has not just offered us moral support but he has guided us with his strategic inputs from the beginning, especially with the overall direction of the summit including the theme of Intaglio 2012. I am sure that he feels as proud as each member of this team at the cusp of the event we are bringing to life.

A B-school summit is only as relevant as the corporate partners supporting it and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our Corporate partners, namely event partners such as – Accenture, Shell, Raymond, Pepsico, Cognizant, Emergent Ventures, State Bank of India, SAIL and Bank of India.  Would also like to thank our Merchandize partners Swatch and our media partners THE WEEK and Radio Mirchi for helping put Intaglio on the National map.

If there is one heritage Intaglio is fiercely proud of, it is the quality of people who make the full team. On behalf of the core team I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards each and every one of the 134 member strong team that gives Intaglio its life and purpose. To say that some of you have given Intaglio the same level of commitment as the core members would not be a stretch of imagination at all. Thank you for the support.

I would also like to thank the present and previous Stud C members who have played a big part in ensuring the operational efficiency of the event.

A few highlights of Intaglio shine brighter than the rest and I would like to draw your attention to those now.

We are thrilled about the speakers that are to address IIM C in the course of the following days. Sri Sri Ravisankar, Prakash Jha and Shashi Taroor are leaders and pioneers in their own fields and I consider it a great privilege to be able to host them on campus in connection with Intaglio. I would like to specially thank ILS for making it possible to host Shashi Taroor on the 9^th of January as part of a joint effort.

We are even more thrilled about being able to implement our humble step towards giving back to the society through the Sunehra Kal initiative started by the previous team of Intaglio. It is a tradition that we plan to continue and scale up over the following years.

On the side of events we are pleased to report that we have launched a new event called “The Secret Formula” to address a gap we felt existed in our flagship events offering. It is an event based on Integrated Marketing Communications and we are the only Business summit of this scale to recognize the importance of the concept and design a flagship event around it. This is a reflection of Intaglio’s commitment to mirror and anticipate corporate and societal needs while rewarding the brightest minds in the country. Last year similar efforts lead to the launching of the 1^st public sector based event – Chanakya which has witnessed tremendous success.

We have also arranged a performance by the renowned band Faridkot which will grace the occasion at the culmination of the summit on Sunday, the 8^th of January. We also have a Stand-Up Comedy show by Vipul Goyal planned up for later evening today.

The next few days on campus are going to be engaging, enriching, rewarding and very challenging. The only reason I am sure it will be a grand success is because of the trust I have on the capabilities of the Intaglio team; a trust borne out of respect, admiration and brotherhood.

Once again I thank you all and wish the best of luck to the contestants and each and every stake holder in Intaglio 2012. Lets get the party started!. Thanks for your time.

]]> http://www.jokatimes.com/2012/01/06/intaglio-2012-inaugural-speech-by-vaibhav-joneja/feed/ 0 http://www.jokatimes.com/2012/01/06/my-intag-story-vaibhav-joneja/ http://www.jokatimes.com/2012/01/06/my-intag-story-vaibhav-joneja/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:01:56 +0000 JokaTimes http://www.jokatimes.com/?p=3090

My Intaglio story as the Overall Coordinator

When it all started a few months ago, I used to wish for 30 hours a day and 10 days in a week. I felt it would be better no! More time to call up sponsors, more time to call up speakers, more time to think about what can be done. More is good, no? Trust me, when you dont have to dowload from DC or sleep the day off, you really really want to use the time you have, it is never enough. Today, I thank the makers of the clock that thereare at least 24 in a day and 7 in a week.

It starts tomorrow, and its been a roller coaster of ride, high on emotion and adrenaline. Being silly and organized, angry and excited, freakish and relaxed – we have lived off each other. I would like to thank CV, Tripathi, Siva, Avadh, Vinay, Doc, Mahato – Guys! Lets not see each other for a week. I am tired of your faces!

In retrospect, I think I entered this college exactly an year late.. some things that would have been in order -
1. Convocation on the day that India got its World Cup Victory

2. An year with corporates having waaayy too much money to spend, meaning easier… way way easier Intaglio Spons

3. That girl in the senior batch.. oh wait.. lets talk abt this after the sunday party!

Intaglio, IIM Calcutta’s Annual International B-School meet, is the biggest B-school summit in Asia.
More at http://iimc-intaglio.com/