As we, the batch of 46/16 completed a job well done and hummed June mein hum… on our respective ways back to our alma mater, there was that palpable feeling of regret as the realization that many familiar, admired and even revered faces would no longer be there to greet us, finally sunk in. But the wheel of time is a juggernaut that even Joka bows to, and we did concede that the time had come to form new bonds, to foster new friendships and to shape bright new sparks to meet the ever-rising expectations of that wily, demanding yet lovable genius- the omnipresent spirit of Joka.

It is to you, the chosen 300-odd who can proudly claim to hold admission offers from IIM-C for the 2010-12 academic session that I speak now- you’ve done your world proud, let that be a sign of what you achieve in ours. The shoes left for you to fill are gargantuan; we expect Bigfoot’s hindquarters to pale in comparison as you outgrow them. Joka will give you the world, use it well to build your own empires. As the day of your arrival to this venerated 135 acre campus draws nearer, it is with a song on my lips, with love in my heart, with arms wide open, with my mask firmly intact and on behalf of my brethren here at Joka that I greet you. Welcome to the kingdom of 7 lakes, to the land of magnificent managers. Hostels where the Malli Mastan Babu’s of the world began their journey to the seven summits await you, classrooms where the Indra Nooyis once sat beckon. The BC Roy Library, which a certain Ramachandra Guha once occupied in person and now continues to do so in the form of embellished letters on paperbacks, lays its infinite resources at your disposal. Even the rain gods seem to have conspired to offer showers of blessings when you arrive.

The moment is solemn and my attempts to pen it in mere words can best be described as futile. Let me then just repeat the simple yet memorable greeting that the flamboyant young man, now in a corner office in some corner of a foreign field, gave to us on our own momentous early days in Joka- “Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome you to IIM Calcutta.”

And the thumping shall remain loud and clear forever.

-MM

Well we’ve made a small brochure to help you make the choice! And remember, all of us are available via the various channels we mentioned. Don’t forget to reach out, no matter how trivial your query!

Here you go. Click on the following presentation to see it in full screen or download the PDF to your computer!

for Jokatimes
Mithun Philip

As tomorrow comes, you will have other offers for other places — as you rightly should! And you will seek out to those you know to help you make the right choice. As someone who has been through the process (I graduated from IIM Calcutta this year) my task is to give you all the information you need to make the right decision for yourself.

At this point your mind must be teeming with questions. My first advice to you would be to finish reading this article, disconnect from the internet, shut down your computer and go celebrate! You will get enough time to make the right call but where you want to be right now is celebrating with friends, family and loved ones!

Great, assuming that makes sense, here are a few reasons why we think you should choose to come IIMC and to Joka.

1. Culture

My first point might surprise you. I could have chosen to highlight our great placements, or our faculty, or our great upcoming infrastructure but in my mind what makes IIM C truly unique is our culture. A culture where the administration believes that all of you are adults and trusts you to make the right decision for yourself. What this means is that there are no draconian attendance requirements, you are free to choose whatever path pleases you in terms of academics (the second year curriculum is 100% tailor made according to your choices) and are free to spend your spare time as you please (either involved in one of IIMC’s countless clubs, playing sports or simply sleeping off a rigorous week!). The administration understands that academics is only a part of what makes the MBA experience so unique and hence, never will it happen that you are so overloaded with class-work that you will not get a chance to catch up with friends or go out for a movie.

Calcutta also has a remarkably different way in which students compete academically. There is a very large degree of support from both the senior batch (You’ll be able to get a crasher for anything you wished) as well as from your own batch-mates. Don’t get me wrong, there is fierce competition but it does not prevent people from co-operating and helping each other out.

And then there are numerous opportunities for you to express you innate talent and drive in various non-academic spheres as well. From a nightout at the spacious Institute auditorium practicing for the next Dramatics Cell professional play or putting on your dancing shoes for the Choreography Club’s latest ensemble creation, joka helps pursue all your old interests, and even pick up a new one if you so wish. For the budding musicians, there is JBSBaroC, the oldest music band among the IIMs, and your ticket to becoming the cynosure of all eyes on stage.

The academic curriculum is rigorous, no doubt – but not to the point of trampling upon every other aspect of your student life in Joka.

2. Placements

I would urge you to ask all the people you talk to about making this decision to ask a few questions about previous placements processes of their respective schools. While it has been widely reported that IIM Calcutta bagged what was the highest salary across all the IIMs, you should know by now that this is a poor representation of a business school’s placement process. Yes, it definitely goes to show that we did exceedingly well this year (surprised some of us even!) and it can be safely said that our placements processes across the years have generally been at least as good if not better that any of the other top business schools in India. The highest salaries are always bagged by those who go on to work for investment banks, but it is a possibility that finance is not what gets you going in the morning. You want to make sure that the school you go to will offer career opportunities not just in banking, but also in other extremely exciting sectors of the Indian economy — consulting, marketing, information technology, human resources, general management, start-ups and the public sector / social service. And if banking and finance is what gets you going in the morning, then I’d say that you should sign on that acceptance form right away!

What counts in a placement processes is not height but depth. When you look at placement figures look carefully and ask questions as to which schools were able to ‘satisfy‘ their student’s expectations? That in my opinion is the best indicator of a well-run placement process. If and when you come to IIM Calcutta you will realize all the hard work that goes behind the headlines, and it is no co-incidence that they are a resounding success year after year. While a few students undoubtedly felt that they could’ve done better in terms of their final offers, there are fewer of them at Calcutta than at other places; an overwhelming majority of us were delighted with our respective placements.

3. Your peers (and everything else!)

I will be the first to admit that those that come into the IIM system are invariably pretty similar, but there is a marked difference in those going out. Each one of us embodies a distinct ‘institute culture’. There is something distinctive about the IIMC culture that is just difficult to state in words! While I’m sure other places have this too, I must be partisan here and root for the Joka culture! Given that IIM Calcutta is the oldest of India’s IIMs and you will be amazed at how far the IIM-C name will take you. Go to any of India’s top companies,(or even major banks, consulting firms, marketing organizations abroad) you will find a Joka-ite occupying a key position, and this institutional resource is just hard to beat! Past students often come down to campus to share their experiences in the corporate world and to recruit for their firms. And once you are working with them, they go that extra mile to ensure that you are enjoying yourself. It’s a privilege that has to be experienced to be believed.

Year after year IIM Calcutta has successfully attracted an extremely diverse set of students. Joka is not home to just a bunch of 300 geeks but also the campus-bred eclectics, eccentrics and intellectuals. You will never run short of a new dimension to add to that classroom discussion, all you need to do is delve into that vast storehouse of brilliant minds aka your peers at IIM Calcutta.

In conclusion

Those I believe are the top three things that I love the most about IIMC. I’m sure my batch-mates will disagree. Some will point out how amazing faculty members were, some will point to the long hours of philosophical conversations had over fried-maggi at night in a finance club meeting and others will point to our exchange programme. All this and more makes Joka an exciting place to do your MBA. Ask around and talk to as many people as possible and make the right decision for yourself!

That’s all from me for now! Feel free to use the comments section to ask queries. We are also present on twitter (www.twitter.com/iimc), facebook(www.facebook.com/iimcalcutta) and via our forums here on Jokatimes and on Pagalguy. We hope that you come to make the ‘right decision’ (:D) and come to Joka and join our amazing invisible community for a lifetime!

Sandeep Pandey, the Berkeley-educated social activist, and Magsaysay award winner was the chief guest for the occasion. His speech served as a reminder of all that we forget too often during the day-to-day of corporate life. He stressed the importance of the primary sector of the economy and on the need for ethics in every stage of corporate decision making. He sat down to general applause, acknowledgement that his ideas resonated with most in the auditorium at one level or another.

The day began when the latest batch of graduating doctoral students, PGDM, PGDCM and PGPEX students marched in the Convocation parade led by members of the faculty. Chairman-PGP, Prof. Prashant Mishra, Chairman-FP, Prof. Bhaskar Chakravarty and Chairman-PGPEX Prof. Biju Paul Abraham spoke about each of the programs and awarded academic honours to the top performing students. A variety of other extra-curricular awards were also given out. Chairman Board of Governors, Rediff-founder and IIM Calcutta old boy, Ajit Balakrishnan spent his time at the podium recounting how IIM Calcutta fared in thought leadership for the year and highlighted research achievements by faculty. The ceremonies concluded with mellifluous music and the national anthem.

The day ended with everyone marching out in their robes and with a rain of black convocation caps on the steps of IIM Calcutta’s iconic auditorium looking resplendent alongside the lake bathed in stunning lighting. As family members applauded and looked on proudly, the students took every last opportunity to take pictures and catch up with friends, perhaps for the last time in a long time.

Convocations are sombre affairs masked under the garb of revelry. Achievements etched in paper and invisible bonds sealed for a lifetime, the latest batch of graduates to bear the title of “Alumni of IIM Calcutta” marched onwards; exiting the main gate of the institute onto the long road of life.

What is keeping organizations from retaining their best female talent & promoting them to top management roles? Bain & Company, a leading global consulting firm recently conducted a global survey called “Gender Parity in the Workplace” of over 1800 men and women to learn more. The survey has thrown up some interesting results:

• While both men and women wish to lead, only 66% men and 30% women feel that women have equal opportunity to reach the higher ranks
• This is despite the fact that both men and women agree that women stand an equal chance to be recruited into junior level positions as men.
• Men tend to be more confident than women that their partner would make a career sacrifice. Nearly 80 percent of the men believe their partner would compromise on her career for the family’s sake, while only 45 percent of women said that their spouses or partners would do the same.

The survey brings to light that although women have gained ground on issues like disparity and harassment, they struggle on gender parity issues like career development and access to leadership roles. Also, few organizations have policies to rejuvenate careers of employees who return to the fold after a gap of a few years, which affects women adversely as they mostly perform the role of caregivers in the family. More than 80% women feel that gender parity should be a business imperative in an organization while only 48% men think likewise.

The survey further suggests two ways of tackling these issues:

• Making gender parity a strategic priority in the organization with complete support from the top management.
• Companies need to make their promotion processes  and career paths less rigid and should try to make the re-entry process for an employee seamless.

Companies which follow gender parity have reported a deeper, committed workforce, saving them millions of dollars by putting people on a fast track promotion path after their re-entry into an organization. Managing gender parity is not a luxury today – In these changing times it has become a necessity to ensure continued growth and success.

It is believed that in the last few days, a couple of episodes have effected an upheaval of the digital world. One, of course, is a certain Marathi Manoos unleashing carnage on a bunch of hapless Proteas (Watch Invictus for some inspiration) and the other has been an algebraic identity – Charlie’s Conundrum, which like the P vs NP problem and the Riemann Hypothesis, has entered the gospels of the modern world. This identity stands brutally rock-solid like the Colossus of Rhodes, unwavered by the force of time and any extraneous elements.

There are a few fixations in the world which are true, elementary in nature, so outrightly obvious that we do not understand their underlying causes. Seekers of the Holy Grail are soon to add Charlie’s Conundrum to their laundry list of blistering barnacles and thundering typhoons as they attempt to unravel the mysteries of this cosmic truth. Amidst the entire hullabaloo labelled as the rat race, Charlie rides on his crest of clean sweeps; peerless and clinical in his consummations. Charlie’s all time favourite and most quoted line goes like, “I am going to make you an offer, which you cannot refuse. And I will keep doing so.”

The inside info is that Charlie will soon topple Rajnikanth and Chuck Norris to be the sole butt of all undisputed superhero jokes. A soon to be premiered print commercial of a leading beverage manufacturer targets its bifurcated market segment in this way : “Homo Sapiens – Yeh Dil Maange More. Charlie – The world Is not Enough “.

For the uninitiated, that damn identity which stereotyped the statuses of my Gtalk contact list and disrupted my mailbox courtesy of the gazillion notifications is simply put as below:

“ C > A+B  “

Let the Dhan Te Naan begin !

The Hazmat

The Hazmat, who allegedly inspired the Big Brother policy, watches over Joka with his mesmerising eyes, riding it into an interstellar overdrive, at the slightest of his whims. Death has no mercy, neither does The Hazmat. He is a dynamic aggregate of the Gemini Twins – Castor and Pollux; for The Hazmat has ceaselessly unleashed his fiendish nature upon the unforgiven mortals as well as protected those golden souls at heart, leaving everyone thoroughly dazed and confused. It is for him the bell tolls, at which the call of Ktulu spreads like wildfire; in the distance, our own Dark Knight with his 13-inch Katana, the Scourge, can be seen riding the lightning. Pleasantries exchanged, you will never even catch that elusive fleeting glimpse of me; however, my hand of doom engulfs this place like the great gig in the sky. You shudder to turn the page, fully aware that I am not just the beast under your bed, but in your closet, in your head.

An initiative of Three Wise Men, Joka management comprises of a melange of cranky homos, each exclusive in their own fashion. It has been my prerogative to put a smile on everyone’s faces, one way or the other ala the Joka(e)r. The community boasts of erudite homos whose scholarly expeditions are aided by joint efforts to combat royal challenges, reminiscent of Napoleon warring against the Romanovs while playing the bagpipes in his signature style. The aviary of the region can be segmented into – my fair ladies, devoid of any hanky panky, hailing from the classic 20^th century era and those, of the same genus as kingfishers and famous grouses, who act as advocates of the legendary Thomas Crapper.

No zombie, bloodhound, flaming volcano has dared to disrupt my reign or affect the sustenance of this paradise. On your royal arrival at the portals, allegorical to Galatasaray’s stadium, a dark and stormy hurricane will appear humming the localised strains of a certain cult ballad, “In June we came”. A cornucopia of consumables are spread out over the land, each a potent concoction of corn ’n’ oil, to be supplemented by a painkiller, barring which you could be a victim of the planter’s punch. Traversing the blue lagoons could be mnemonic of the Staten Island ferry to Long Island, picking up a few red lotuses on the way. We embrace egalite – do not differentiate between the White and Black Russians, in spite of being immersed in a sea of Red. Cognitive of becoming potential ambassadors of India Inc., we are men ‘o war in the common market with hearts of fire, aristocratic and old fashioned in times of distress, when one often cries out, “bloody Mary”.

Over the next few days, months, years (depending on my tenure at Joka), I will digitally describe our Indian summer, our blue sundays and every other roadhouse blue of life at Joka. As I look out of the balcony in my room, I see a few souls comfortably numb, a few violently orchestrating their high hopes and some others learning to fly. Like most others, the fundamental right to privacy is non existential in this compound purely due to all my pervasive senses. Your inner most secrets lie exposed, and will continue to be so as I keep rocking your heart out. Sleep tight with fright – a constant fear that someone’s always there. Signing off with a Glasgow Smile and a Last Kiss, I shall head back to my chambers to rest in peace.

-The Hazmat

P.S : Etymology of the name – Meaning hazardous, The Hazmat invoked inconceivable trepidation and distress among the inhabitants to such an extent that they never gambled to speak or laugh in front of him and constantly hushed up their friends and kin saying, ‘Has mat’ (in Hindi), ultimately evolving into the present name.

It is one of my theories –one that I have developed in the many hours of leisure that were afforded to me post the summers process (always feels nice to say that, huh), that fests are a way of prolonging your madcap childhood days. It is well known that to hold on, or to not let go, is one of the most primitive of human tendencies, and what could be more precious than some of the most cherished years of our lives. Sitting in the auditorium today listening to one of the bands performing in the Armageddon prelims, I couldn’t help getting pangs of old age when the vocalist said- “This next song is about breaking the rules. We’re all teenagers here, we’re all rebels.” Time might have put paid to the teenager in me, but the rebel continues to rule the roost. And what better place to give that rebel room than this particular weekend- Carpe Diem. You know the madness has begun when, amidst huge banners of Axe reeking of capitalistic consumerism, the performing band comes up with an insane number extolling the leftward path and draws tremendous applause from B-school students who will soon be the pillars of profit-making capitalist society.

The weekend looms large and promising in front of me, in front of all of us. Each second holds the allure of unexplored possibilities. I never thought I’d hear an amateurish name like Evil Conscience, or was it Soulful Death, once I’d left college. I never thought I’d headbang like there was no tomorrow until I heard the Unknown Artists’ guitarist. But in those 2-3 hours that I spent at the audi, I realized that I never want these festivities to end. Each step that the cute model in Razzmatazz took, each reverberation that was made by the drumset tonight, each question that will be asked at the quizzes coming up, each movement that is to be executed by the dancers, each thought that is to be articulated at the debates and each note that will be created at Symphony- they all form an indelible part of the youth that I wish had never turned 20. The coming weekend, in however unsuccessful a way, will be a sporting attempt at rejuvenating it. There’s always an occasion for one last hurrah after all.

Carpe Diem. Seize the day. And then cease it.

-MM

D. Shivkumar is IIM Calcutta’s successful man of the year. He was one the prominent alumni at the ‘Batch of 84’s Alumni re-union and has now spoken at what is surely one the highlights of “Reverberations”, Intaglio’s guest speaker series. Shivkumar chose ‘Answers in an uncertain world’ Intalgio’s theme for this year and showed us what 25 years of experience gets you – sharp insight into the business world combined with an unmatched level of articulation. Uncertainly is not risk, Shivkumar said, and harped on the point that it is uncertainty that creates opportunities for growth.   As he addressed an enthralled and packed auditorium, members of audience left with one tangible takeaway – the state of the business world today, fraught as it is with uncertainties is a huge opportunity for future business leaders; its only disguising itself as a challenge.

JokaTimes talked to some students after the keynote speech and this is what they had to say:

“I think everyone thought it was a brilliant presentation, he definitely has stage presence and that made the address even better!” – Sriram, PGP2

“One of the key things was that he spoke from an industry perspective rather than just a Nokia perspective, and that was really good” – Anand, PGP2

A bus down memory lane

When D.Shivkumar got down from the bus outside IIM Calcutta’s main gate he achieved two things. First, he relived dusty memories of old times as a student at Joka when he would take the famous Calcutta buses with batchmates. Secondly, he made a point. In supporting Intaglio’s green theme this year, Shivkumar told us that it’s never too late to change our habits. Every little drop saved, every unit of electricity conserved and every mile walked makes a difference to our world. We at Intaglio thank Shivkumar by planting a sapling in his name. You too can support Intaglio in this initiative by taking a bus to come to SBI Quizzical, Intaglio’s flagship quiz event and plant a sapling to take another small step to protecting our planet. Large, policy level decisions at the global scale take remarkable tact and determination as the Copenhagen summit has shown. But following in Shivkumar’s footsteps requires only a bus ticket!

Click here for an interview with Mr. D.  Shivakumar

JokaTimes:  Tell us something about your experiences on this bus, Baro-C, and the last time you traveled on it.

Shiv:  BaroC (12 C) being the connecting bus from Joka to the city, every time we wanted to go anywhere, we ended up taking the bus. One thing I remember very vividly about my trips is the language of the conductor. Every conductor, on every trip, would continuously and most dutifully say, “As the ladies” (meaning ‘wait for the ladies’). There would always be a discussion among commuters on Mohun Bagan vs East Bengal. If one person got down at his bus stop, there would always be someone else who’d pick up the argument from where the previous person had left off and continue with all eagerness. This meant that we spent most of our trips listening to continuous streams of discussions!

JT: How was your dreaded first term on campus? Given that it is the most loaded semester in terms of course-credits and it’s the first few months in a demanding atmosphere…

Shiv:  Well, in our days, it was slightly more relaxed. But my first term was not so pleasant for a very different reason. On my way to IIMC as a new student, I took the train from Bombay to Kolkata, and lost my entire luggage in Bihar. I even remember the new blue VIP suitcase that I’d lost! This meant that I arrived on campus with a tennis racquet, two T-shirts, and an airbag. I’d lost my documents, clothes, and every other thing of importance. I spent most of 1^st term going to and fro to the police station at Howrah in relation to the complaint! Needless to say, my suitcase still remains lost.

JT:  What were the popular sports during your time? For example, we now have our own game with specific rules called footer-volley, based on Sepak Takraw. It’s something every student gets proficient at before graduation!

Shiv:  For us, the IIMC-XLRI meet was the only time we played with anyone from outside the campus. We had a pretty strong wing-culture, and there were a lot of tournaments where one wing was pitted against another. But as a college, I’d say football was the most played game. We also played a lot of cricket, hockey and badminton. Among indoor games, Chess and carom were the most popular, and there’d always be people playing either of these games. During every IIMC-XL meet, the entire campus would be charged up and enthusiastic. We’d lost against XLRI during my first year, but made up for it handsomely in my second year!

JT: What were the different clubs and other student activities in your time?

Shiv: We really did not have the club system; it was more like interest groups. We had an extremely active quizzing team. Apart from this, there were regular music nights in which the faculty would take part with a lot of enthusiasm. And we’d have movies screened in the open air next to the badminton court. A funny thing that would happen was, every time a song came along in the movie, there’d be a group of people who’d dance enthusiastically and then would vociferously request for the song to be played again. This led to each song being played four to five times to allow them to dance to their heart’s content before the movie continued! I used to write regularly during college, I’d been the editor of the college newsletter in IIT Madras during my under-graduation, and continued it in IIMC, writing extensively for the yearbook and for the campus magazine.

JT: Given that your batch had a group of around 90 students, how were the campus dynamics?

Shiv: Yes, all of us knew each other extremely well. The campus was a peaceful secluded area with just the faculty and us. We formed a very close-knit community. The teachers took part in and conducted various quizzes for us and we’d have numerous discussions with them inside and outside of class, which constituted a large part of our learning experience.  We had three spots where discussions would generally take place. The tyre outside Ramanujam hostel would always have some people sitting on it and discussing topics across the spectrum: from Bengal politics to Keats’ poetry. Another haunt was Mihir’s dhaba right outside campus, and another was the mess. During our second year, a coffee corner was opened in campus and immediately, that became another centre for discussions! Something else that greatly aided our learning was the library. It came up in its present form during our second year, and it had an impressive collection of volumes.

JT: The library is now a peaceful place to read, rather than a source of information. Most library resources and databases are available online. We should say our visits to the library have decreased compared to your time!

Shiv:  Yes, these days a lot of things are more convenient. For example, we’d have long and very regular power-cuts during my course! But again, things were also a lot simpler then. Our placements weren’t as hectic as they are these days. The learning process would invariably accelerate during 2^nd year, with a lot of people having learnt a lot during the internship process, and hence would add a lot of value to each discussion. And then before placements we’d have a suit season, where for a princely sum of a couple of thousand rupees, we’d all get impressive suits done. This was also the time where one would feel like one was walking into a new place, what with most people suddenly getting rid of their beards and tidying up after ages to attend placements!

JT: Which was your favorite subject during your MBA?

Shiv: Marketing was definitely my favorite. Apart from that, being Calcutta, we had the strongest Economics department, and I immensely enjoyed most of my lectures.

JT: Yes, some of the professors who taught you still teach us! And we continue to be enthralled by their magic.  Economics is generally the topic of discussion or contemplation on any of the lakeside sit-outs. Oh, and wasn’t swimming in the lakes allowed in your time?

Shiv: Yes, but not many swam in the lakes anyway. With 7 lakes on campus, we spent most of our time sitting around a lake or another enjoying the view.