A 2nd year MBA student finds a magic lamp and makes 3 wishes…

The President, Kapidhwaja Singh introduced each member of the student council and outlined their roles and responsibilities. Primarily people introduced to the students included the Hostel Affairs Secretary, the Student Exchange Coord., the IT Rep, the PGP representatives and the placement representatives. The council has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that the batch faces little problems in acclimatization to the new conditions. This was especially true this year given the difficulties of accommodating an enlarged batch with the new infrastructure yet to come up. The college also faces challenges in terms of keeping up with growing demands from the IT infrastructure. The IT Rep. assured the students that the whole system would be upgraded within a couple of months. This comes as a relief to a number of students worried about the measures the college is taking to keep up with the pent-up numbers.

Students were also introduced to the ISG, the campus group that maintains all internal software systems and also backs this website. They were introduced to the variety of tools and applications the ISG has developed and encouraged the students to get to know and use them. Sunil Chandrasekhar a first year student said “It was great to know that there is this huge student team working to keep the show running in the background. It’s great that we have such a responsive and well-managed team. And it was nice getting to know the faces behind the ISG; they are so huge on campus!”

We at Jokatimes would encourage the batch of 46/16 to get to know their council better and participate in campus development activities. What they say about democracy is true after all – if you don’t speak up, nothing gets done!

Honorable Director of the institute, faculty, officers and staff, our esteemed guests and my dear friends,

I express my greetings to everyone on this occasion of India’s 60th republic day.  We, as a republic, have come a long way in the last 59 years. We have a long list of achievements accomplished since 26th Jan 1950 and even a longer list of things to be done. We are all aware of it. I would not waste your time by going into those details. What I want to speak about is “what is expected of us students 59 years after the formation of the republic”. 

We are privileged to have found a place in this premier institute of the country and getting a heavily subsidized education whereas, there are lakhs and lakhs of people waiting outside the walls. We are proud of our accomplishment and so should we. The nation adores us, the nation feels proud of us and the nation expects their children to be like us. But, the nation also expects something from us.  

We are all known for our business acumen and our problem solving abilities. We are going to be the business leaders of tomorrow. But, is this all we need to be?

What we also need is to be thought leaders for others, to be opinion centers of the country.

In the month of September 2008, we were all shocked by the news of Lehmann brothers collapsing and American economy going into economic depression. But we missed the news of 50 lakhs people displaced in the worst ever flood in north Bihar, the news of communal outburst in Orissa and the likes. It is true that the Lehmann collapse is very detrimental to our careers, but I don’t think the other news were so insignificant that we didn’t even give a second thought. 

The recent blasts in Mumbai will be remembered for so many reasons. But one reason that I feel worth mentioning here is- it made the people living in posh localities of South Mumbai realize that their expensive ACs and  marbled bungalows were not strong enough to isolate from the ground realities the nation was facing. 

We will have to consider these factors when we do the DCFs or SWOT analysis of our careers, our business and our lives. This is because a major part of the investments in building our careers have come from this nation. The opportunity costs of these investments are very high. How does the country manage to provide this; -by cutting down drought relief money of a Vidarbha farmer, by cutting down the medical facilities at a government hospital in a village or by simply letting a few more thousand people die out of hunger.

I do not mean that we should leave the corporate and join social service, but what we must do is try and repay the debt that we owe to this nation and to its people.  

What do we need to do?

Get aware of the ground realities, start identifying the ways in which we can repay the debt and be a thought leader for others to follow.

Let us all Accept the challenge and make her a better republic!

Happy republic day!

Jai Hind!

for Jokatimes
Abhishek Nagaraj 

Beep beep! It’s my alarm clock going off! Whew, that was scary. Scarier still is the fact that I have been pressing the snooze button all along in my sleep. It is almost 8.20 am! No breakfast for me then. Quickly going through my morning ablutions, I stuff whatever notebook is the most visible on my desk into my backpack and start running. Down the stairs, past the mess, past the jetty, evading the bombing (for the uninformed, Jokaland is inhabited by a LOT of crows), I run to the lecture. Punctuality is appreciated in Jokaland and it is not uncommon to find the door simply locked if you enter your 8.30 class at 8.35 am. Just in time I enter L1 to find the Professor entering from the other door.

An hour an a half later, I rush to the snack shop in the Academic Block for my cup of “wake-up” juice, also known as coffee. 3 more lectures to go in the day, 3 hours to lunch and my stomach is singing. No money, no breakfast would have been the normal course but for the helping hands around me. Say the magic words “Yaar, khilade” and a sandwich is conjured up out of nowhere. You meet some of the most helpful and friendly people here and 90% of them are your classmates, the other 10% being shared among seniors and even Professors. Its not for no reason that IIM C is an “RG-free” zone.

1.30 pm and its lunch time. I stick it out for 10 minutes behind the long queue in the mess before I am able to access the meal of the day. Wolfing down rice and curry, I rush off for the next and final lecture of the day.

4.00 pm and I’m back in my room. 2 cases to read and a quiz to prepare for tomorrow. Its going to be one long night. But wait a minute, it’s time for some footer! After an hour of head-butting the ball and mistimed kicks, I’m finally exhausted. I trudge back to my cases and books, skinned elbow and all.

1.00 am in the night and its time for a midnight snack. As I venture out of my room I am greeted by the cacophony of a million guitars and drumsticks on overdrive. Oh yes, it JBS in the music room. Jokaland never sleeps. Even at 5 in the morning dont be surprised to find the odd human watching the sun rise on IIM C’s very own ‘Howrah bridge’.

2.00 am and its time for shut eye. I put on episode 8 of the 4th season of a good sitcom I filched off DC++ and sleep off on my keyboard. Good Night Jokaland.

As the new admit to Jokaland bids adieu to his family, friends and colleagues, packs up his bags and gets on that train to Howrah, one the many myriad thoughts on his mind is “Will I fit into the new campus?” Its a brand new experience staying in a self-contained campus with more than 700 other students, eating together in the mess, living in wings and meeting them day in a day out for two years. IIM Calcutta is one very large, fun-loving and diverse family. Just like any other family we have our own lingo, our “codewords” and our rituals. Jokaland proactively welcomes every new family member with open arms. In your two years here, you meet some of the most eccentric, funny, caring, brilliant and above all considerate people. You make friends for life, find new new interests and grow immeasurably as a person. One of the key learning tools in any management program is through peers and the quality of the peers one may hope to find here is unsurpassed.

Joka-ites believe in working hard and partying harder. After a week of sleepless mid-term examinations, an all night party at OH quad is indeed a welcome relief. The in-house band JBSBaroC, an institution in itself, can be heard belting out one chart-topper after the other at these enduring nights of fun and frolic.

On a chilly winter evening in December if you thought of going for a movie, well look no further. IIM C’s Dramatics Cell productions are certainly no less fun than what’s on at INOX. If you wanted to see the hills of North Bengal or tigers at the Sunderbans, our Adventure Club is always here to take you on that trip of a lifetime.

IIM Calcutta believes in letting you be anyone you want to be. If you have twinkle toes and want to put on those dancing shoes, Choreo Club will give you the stage to express yourself. whether you lover literature or cinema there are forums to further every interest. After a long day’s grill at the Academic Block, you can have a great evening with your buddies playing the IIM C game “Footer-volley”. All work and no play makes every Joka-ite a dull boy or girl. IIM C prepares a person not only for the arena of managemnt but for the arena of Life.