The class I didn’t want to end

Today was one of the best days for most of us. We had the last class of our Services Marketing course and we are all still in a hangover.

I’ve never really admired any teacher or professor in my life. There have obviously been good profs who’ve had an influence on me, but the professor of this course is the best I’ve ever seen. Everyone who has taken the course is reveling for having taken it. Our students are so cynical and demanding that a faculty who handles a course really well might get a ‘good prof’ certification from just about 70 to 80 percent of the batch. But this prof gets straight five stars from almost everyone. ‘I admire him’ kind of threads has started on the newsgroups, and appreciation is pouring in – something I’ve never seen in more than one year of my stay here. That fact that I’m writing about our classes and professors in itself is a new thing to me.

I don’t want to disclose his name here, but I can say that his credentials are amazing. An IIMA passout, he’s currently handling classes in several IIMs and other B-schools, apart from doing consultancy services to hundreds of companies. Some of his projects have gained appreciation from the World Bank.

I’ve personally gained a lot. Not just the academics, but how to do things with a passion and complete devotion. He’s the only prof with him I’ve had an after-class conversation, and that ran into hours. The amount of energy he pumps beats everything else.

The best was during the end of the course when he showed a 30 minutes long amazing slideshow full of pictures and then asked us to tear up a quiz answer paper and let the bits fly while his double big bass speakers were crying out Pink Floyd’s “Another brick in the wall” – “We don’t need no thoughts control” humming in the background. Everything was captured in the cameras around. The fact that he brought his own big speakers and the picture projector for this purpose shows the enthusiasm he pumps in. As I write this, the song is still running in several hostel rooms now.

Anyway, I guess I’ve said enough. Sometimes, you come across truly amazing people who change the view you think and give you a lot of mental energy to do things with passion. This is one, and none of us are going to forget him or this bit of our lives.

On a rainy day

All I remember out of the rainy season last year in Indore is “It started raining one day and stopped two months later”. That’s exactly what I remember about last year. The rainy season started with a very sad note this year. There were no rains in the first few days. People started speaking about drought and lack of groundwater in Indore. It was just unbelievable considering the amount of rain we had last year.

Exactly two days after the Mumbai rains that made into news, we were bashed. It all broke down heavily yesterday. The whole campus, despite being on a hill, was floating in water. It was pouring without respite. The unfair angle of the rain sealed our chances of taking respite inside our rooms. Water somehow managed to come slowly but steadily into the rooms through the door clearance. Half of my first floor room was under a thin sheet of water. Sometimes, you just can’t avoid taking a broom. To my utter disgust, I realized I was really bad at that job. It was even worse when my neighbors started capturing me with a broom in the camera, but I ain't going to post those pics. What gave me some comfort was the fact that half of the humanity in our hill had to do clear water out of rooms.

A view of our mess from the hostel - water as far as the sight takes.


Water flowing through the steps to the library – erosion was at a peak at a lot of places in the campus, worst I’ve ever seen.


Jam and the rest of my corridor mates fretting over water coming into the rooms.


As they say: when it rains, it pours. Seriously.

And God made me so…

I’m sure one of these of these days some guy is going to ask me “Dude, just what do you know on earth?”

It’s awesome (err… is it awful?) to be around with a bunch of smart guys, particularly good quizzers. You move around with them and you’d inevitably end up feeling like shit one day or the other. Today was one of those days. There is cricket quiz scheduled tonight and all the dead cricketers of yore have come alive once again. No one probably discusses about them these days. That might include even their descendants, but that’s not the point. In the name of a quiz, people come into life again. I don’t know much about the topic, and I always feel like: What’s the point in discussing about dead people? Do you really have to speak about the 1930 Brazilian guy who missed the final penalty leading to his team losing? Maybe things would be different if I’m involved. Anyway, read the following.

Here are some of the questions that are a part of the discussions.

Q: Who’s the slowest test bowler from India?

My answer: God knows, but my guess is Venkatesh Prasad. And I’m positively sure.

Q: Who started the concept of overarm bowling? Why?

My answer: The bully next to my home. We used to play underarm and one fine day he said we are big enough to play overarm. And that’s when I think the whole world started it. On a more serious note, I was told that some famous guy’s sister who was wearing skirts was having problems with underarm since the skirt came in the way while bowling and hence invented overarm. Bizarre eh?

Ofcourse, I’ve played a LOT of cricket in my school-hood but I never bothered to retain and explore the details of the game because I played just for the sake of playing and no one ever bothered to tell me that I’ll later be facing a bunch of people ten years later who’d wake up dead people and discuss what happened to them in cricket before I was born. I pretty much left cricket after high school since I was shifted to a different place void of friends near home. Needless to speak what work does to one.

On comparison, I got to admit that the retention power of my brain is very, very weak. I can’t even remember my passwords; let alone what the guy with the mustache did with the ball in 1920 in London. But then, my memory particularly fails me when it comes to names, because I still have a good memory of a lot of capitals that I and a bunch of my friends mugged up in sixth grade for kick’s sake. I still remember it was awesome fun spelling out the capital of Morocco in a high school quiz when no one knew where that country was. Good old days they were.

By the way, the next question in line was: How many centuries did Gavaskar score in West Indies against West Indies?

Duh! I just need ONE wish from God…

Interviewed by Pagalguy.com

A correspondent of Pagalguy.com (PG) recently 'interviewed' me, the content of which has been now been published here. I hope it might of some help for CAT aspirants.

PG was a lot of support and fun when I was preparing for CAT. It was really good finding like-minded people there, and the fact that I had never met a guy from an IIM before made the whole experience of mingling with some smart minds a fantastic experience. It used to a relatively smaller website those days with a close bunch of people who pretty much knew each other very well. We used to login and keep continously chatting or taking part in discussions all the time.

It was even better to meet completely new people - who I only knew online - in PG meets in Bangalore and Chennai. In all, it was a very enriching experience. Hope to be moree frequent...

Updates from Planet-I

Yes, we affectionately call our institute Planet-I. That's because we've got a couple of ‘I’s in IIMI. The fact that we are all pretty much out of the thick of civilization lends credit to the usage of 'Planet'.

'I' is an awesome letter. We've taken complete freedom to prefix or append 'i' with any and everything we do. The clubs are called Mercuri, Equiti etc. Our magazine is called the I-mag. Our collective student’s blog is called iLife. Our event is called Iris. And even the newsletters are called iLetters etc.

Official PGP1 welcome party

Coming to the updates, we had the official freshers party yesterday. The entire resident IIMI family - all students, faculties etc turned up for the event, which was held in the biggest hotel in Indore. PGP1, our juniors, showed us their other halves - dances, songs, plays etc. It was good fun all in all. I couldn't upload pix into photobucket which doesn't seem to be working now, but I expect Chandoo to give a detailed account sometime soon.

Starting FPM

Treading on the lines of the bigger IIMs, our institute too is starting the FPM program. Applicants for this CAT would have the possibility to apply to this course. With this, the fleet is nearly complete - regular PGP, MDP and FPM.

Infrastructure

Lots of changes are happening in the campus. Plans are being charted for a new hostel block next to the existing ‘A’ block, possibly for the increase in the number of seats next year. That's good news for IIM aspirants. Most of the area on top of the hill is getting an artificial grass cover. We also notice ground being dug inside the campus, to the right of the entrance gate, possibly for some plantations. God knows what's going to come there, but we all know that the campus would be very different if we happen to visit say 10 years later.

Updates would be relatively infrequent due to the extreme load, what with classes running till 8.30 pm in the evening!

Determination?

A bizarre update this - check the website of a 200 pound guy who's walking across America to lose weight. Some determination!

http://www.thefatmanwalking.com/

A really admirable feat!

And it happens all over again

Come birthday and everything happens again.

Last birthday was nasty. Eggs, bumps and God-knows what. I was stinking. Literally. I made a vain resolution not to 'nasty' others, but for some of my close friends. I kind of stuck on to it and was under the impression that this birthday would be 'light' since I wasn't 'tough' on anyone the whole of last year.

Wrong move.

The first mail went 30 mins before midnight from my neighbor, pretty much sounding like "If you have it in you, come and kick him". 10 or so souls turned up and I managed to convince them not to be hard on me. The 'I've become old' argument works. Trust me.

But an hour later, someone out there was feeling bad that I didn't get bumps and decided to take over. I was hoping against hope that they wouldn't kick me because kicking for birthdays is banned here after a couple of accidents. But then, you put a bunch of smart guys, they'll figure out some way to go about it. I got bumps alright. A dozen eggs followed. Some rotten milk followed. I was smelling like shit. Three baths in two hours after midnight. And all for a birthday!

I'm now sure about one thing. I'm not going to make the 'wrong move' once again.

The (dis)pleasure of getting old

Make no mistake on that. It feels really bad to get old. It didn’t matter as long as I was in teens; even early 20s seemed fine. But slowly, as days pass by, I’m feeling a bit bad about facing peak adulthood.

With my 24th birthday in the horizon, things are looking bad. I mean; gone are the days when I was waiting to sport a beard and look like a man. I’ve grown long past that. Two years back, white hairs starting spouting out. It wasn’t a problem finding the one or two odd ones and cutting them short, but it is a problem to find so many.


You know you are getting old when:

• Sad-looking guys keep coming home with the only motive to fix you up with someone. Worst is when they tell you “it’s time to get married”. It pretty much reads like “Doomsday is in. Not much time before you get down the drain.” The accompanying giggle sounds almost satanic.
• Guys around you slowly stop wearing those funky T-shirts and start wearing the 1950s plains, checks and stripes.
• You get mails from the classmates of yesteryears that they’ve gotten married and they’ve got kids and all’s well.
• People start calling the beer-belly as ‘corporate lifestyle’ and a mark of businessman-ship, whatever that means.
• Classmates starts saying “make the most use of these days”, as though there is no tomorrow.
• People don’t look at you anymore as a geek who knows how to use a computer; everyone around you with two hands and two legs know that.
• ‘Sir’s and ‘Uncle’s become common when people address you.

Unaware of all this, I’m sure my friends are going to wish me “long live for hundred years” when the midnight comes, but that’s really not what I want them to do. I don’t want that day to pass. I don’t want sympathetic faces from the youngsters who look at me like some lost charm of yesteryears.

I’ve starting to grow this feeling when those young cousins of mine started speaking about some mobile technology that I find only in the advertisements, and about some band called Mogwai that ‘rocks’ these days. How weird and odd sounding that is. If you are as confused as I am, may be its time for you too to consider the techniques to stay young.

Worst is when parents continuously speak about marriage when you go home to relax, an opportunity that you get once or twice in a year. Even if you manage to use all you learn in management to stop them by sounding like a really intelligent person who has certain ‘goals’, ‘missions’, ‘visions’ and ‘roadmaps’ in life, those old creepy guys continuously stream in with that astrological Greekish parchment that decides the fate of a lot of people and spoil all the fun. In the end, as always, parents have the way and all you could settle for is a 3 year delay. Three years. Just 1000 odd days between all the fun and marriage, kids, responsibility and associated stuff. It’s becoming impossible to pass a day without thinking about all this.

Oh God! Save me.

Full kudos to Mani Rathnam

One of the best reasons to come to a B-school is to undergo the second year experience. Many, many of my seniors said "This would undoubtably be the best year of your life". With such a lot of reemphasis, I certainly didn’t doubt the statement, although I couldn't quite predict how the best year of my life would actually turn out to be.

The work load is half of what it was, and professors are looking at us like more matured people. In direct contrast to the first year, we've got one hell of a lot of time for doing anything we like. I spend most of the time visiting blogs, websites, watching movies, music, playing games etc. Anyway, cutting it short, thanks to second year, I got a chance to re-watch Kannathil Muthamittal [Rewatching is something I never used to do before]. I watched it in the first week of release in Coimbatore, and my first impressions then was that it was a great movie, but I didn't realize how great it was, probably because I was generally ignorant of movies.

After watching SO MANY movies here, many of which 'the best ever made' types, I'm beginning to really respect Mani Rathnam and his genius. Kannathil Muthamittal is one genius of a movie. Re-watching has made me look at it in an entirely new light. Every element of the movie is classic - story, picturization, music, characters, romance - everything. One of the parameters for me to say a movie is great is the gripping factor. Even Godfather didn't rivet me to that an extent. It was certainly good in all elements, but I was still kinda waiting for it to get over. [Don't take me on a ride for this. It's just my views.] Kannathil Muthamittal scores well there too. I wanted the movie to go on and on. Mani Rathnam is a genius. I can't remember a single movie with Simran in such an amazing homely and yet riveting role.

I know my appreciations are all out, but that's only because I'm writing this right after the movie and I believe this movie deserves everything. I'd personally rate is one of the best movies I've watched - in all languages.



Two things that are disappointing:

1) It wasn't a big commercial success. But then, not at all great movies are commercially successful, although I don't see why this one isn't.

2) Very less awards & recognition. 5 National awards and 6 Cinema express awards are ok-ok, but this one certainly deserves international attention - atleast for the true portrayal of the hard truths behind LTTE and SriLankan problems, which is anyway at the forefront of world attention.

Meet the serial killer of the cyber world

“You are a totally useless guy” calls one of my neighbors, after seeing me get into a virtual world yet another time. When the clock strikes midnight, I’ve always moved out of the real world, far into the amazing, exciting and gripping virtual world. It happens as clockwork, almost daily, and chances of a miss are bare minimum. I might have missed numerous assignments, classes and meetings, but when the mail comes calling us into the virtual world, I never fail to get in. As soon as he hears the sound, my neighbor barges into the room and gives the same comment every time. This again happens as clockwork.

I’m actually bored of one of the classic arguments in the campus. People continuously ask “is there anything wrong with people who play computer games, especially the violent ones? Or is it just a cool way to past time?” Actually, I don’t think I’m even interested in knowing what the guys think about it. Beyond a point, you get insulated to such stuff, and the ‘listen in one ear and leave it in the other’ phenomenon proves very useful.

As though everything in the world is programmed, my neighbors get additional support in the form of newspapers that call people like me “serial killers of the cyber world”. I hate to hear that someone out there associates innocent souls like me with some other creepy souls out there, but who cares as long as the fun flows and time passes. When the real world doesn’t provide as much entertainment as the virtual world – ones simulated by computer games – I don’t have any reason to complain. Ofcourse, the ideal thing to do would be to play out in the sun, in the field, in the open. But the sun never comes many a time, and the fields are muddy, while the virtual world is always the same, always as entertaining and exciting as the first time. Come rain or cold, it gives a chance to prove to yourself that you are a hero, and that there is some talent hidden in some crevices. Whether is someday going to be useful or not is not under the microscope. Some would call it a subconscious way to satiate the violent thoughts hidden deep under, but I haven’t yet seen those thoughts and hence I’m not even bothered to know what that stuff means. For the moment, we'd call that Greek.

The fun that I get out of out-thinking and out-maneuvering an equally intelligent friend of mine is simply unattainable in the real world. Add to that the talent doesn’t need physical strength. I login and open the game screen, which is the window to the exciting world. All I have to do is to get the mouse movements right, and get the strategy right, and one of my intelligent friends succumbs to my move. Spectacular. Almost surreal. Everytime I get in, I get the same satisfaction, the same pleasure. It’s an unparalleled way to pass time. People are probably different, and that explains why some of them find all this artificial or boring, but for us, it’s a lot of fun. A LOT of fun. You probably know what that means.

It is three hours since twenty of us stepped into this virtual world full of exciting passes, dark corners and morphed humans, and it’s just two hours to dawn. Tomorrow is going to be boring in the same old way - classes, assignments, some boring souls, and some boring news. But there is going to be one break, late in the night; a chance to get out of the boredom. No one’s going to stop; called serial killers or not.

B-schools and regional cultural differences

If you are used to reading rediff.com news, you could find an article on “What ails B-school education in India” almost every week. Top people from corporate who have 20 or so experience in top management in top companies of India, who themselves invariably are pass outs of the older Indian Institute of Managements, write about that they find missing in the B-school education in India. While I tend to agree with half of them – like the need for emphasis on practical aspects rather than jargons etc, I couldn’t connect to the other half that hovers around B-school students being bookish etc. Given the time limit of two years, I think B-schools are doing good in terms of curriculum, and there’s always going to be some restrictions on what one is going to learn in the classrooms as opposed to the wide wild corporate world. But there is something more that I’ve really found lacking – need for an education about the cultures within India and how to understand customers in different parts of India.

Not many of us know that different regions in India have very different cultures, and that the mentality could be very, very different. While I was in Delhi, one of my Punjabi friends asked me “how different is South India?” which set my thought process. First and the foremost, the languages are different, which means that the entire thought process and the value system is different. That’s because, as kids, we are invariably taught values based on our own language, and when the language changes, there is a possibility for the whole base to shift. That’s just the beginning. The other differences are – food, traditional clothing, festivals, calendar, majority race (Dravidian versus Aryan), to name a predominant few. Although my knowledge about East India is cosmetic, I guess the same kind of differences exist there too.

Ofcourse, there are a lot of overlaps and not everything is different. For example, the different cuisines can found all over India. Thanks to T-shirts and Jeans, youngsters might pass without any difference. And the English language and calendar unites us in more ways than we could think is possible. The culture differences are acutely felt by people who are not aware that the cultures are very different. We’ve all come across North Indians who complain about pure South Indian food after landing in Chennai and crying to go out of the place, and South Indians (like me) perpetually missing home and traveling miles to get a taste of something remotely resembling a dosa. It’s just that we are not aware of the magnitude of the existence of such a difference that makes things shocking. With such a shallow understanding, how would we successfully understand the minds of customers and make good marketers?

Cutting it short, the point I’m trying to make is: With such a lot of culture differences, it would be a costly mistake not to understand them. I’ve seen cosmetic references about intra-cultural differences – mentions about difference in saving and spending mentality; the levels of development and urbanization etc, but like the International Human Resources courses we have, I think it’s imperative to have some sessions to understand people in different parts of the country. I felt the need for it when a professor asked “Do you think there are work culture differences between Chennai and Delhi?” and just ten or so hands went up, most of whom have had a taste of two or more such Indian cultures.

The traffic maze

This is a fwd picture I got. Franfurt's railway network, with, as you'd guess, very precisely scheduled and safe rails. I read an article sometime back commenting on India's population and chances of a HUGE number of people taking flights if the prices fall. The doomsayers were speaking about the infrastructural hassles and the traffic problems that might occur. It sounded scary to think about, say 50 years later, a 100 million people taking to air. But the picture gives a feeble hope that traffic of any amount can be handled. It's just that we need to get it right, which is not so easy considering our track record.

Journey to the roof of the earth

Alright. Here's yet another dream that's about to be fulfilled - a journey to the state Jammu & Kashmir. We are not likely to make it to Srinagar, but our plans are to make it to Leh, Ladakh district via Manali, close to the world's highest motorable road, through the efamous Himalayan passes (Rohtang Pass; Keylong; Namika La; Tanglang Pass) etc. Leh, the roof of the world; the Little Tibet; the Last Shangrila.

We made it to Manali and Solang last winter, and that in itself was quite a visit. This visit must be even more splendid. If words in the websites are to be believed, this must be sort of a visit to paradise - what with 10th century monastries, exposure to pure Buddhist culture, altitudes crossing 5000 meters (holy cow!), and the Himalayas and Karakoram range in vicinity.

On a somewhat (un)related note, I was going through Time's review of the battle over Siachen - War on to of the world. It's a bone-chilling description of what's happening there. Following quotes really hooked me:

Temperatures can fall below -55°C; and more soldiers are killed in avalanches than by gunfire.

Because of the lack of oxygen, attacking soldiers can climb only about five meters before they have to stop to catch their breath. If you let bare skin touch steel for more than 15 seconds—a finger on a trigger, for example—you risk severe frostbite.

And huge platoons of army fighting inspite of all this. Madness! Madness!

I really couldn't believe that we missed a Siachen-like experience by a whisker. There was a military lab in Manali that simulates Siachen-like environment for research - minus 35 degrees temperature etc - and we just sort of ran a bit unlucky not to have made it to there. The proposal - wearing a completely out-of-the-world attire, heavy duty snow boots, gloves et all - was a part of the plan. Sigh! I don't really know whether we'll get a chance again!

As usual, tips and suggestions from people who've been to these places would be great!

Hurray! IIMs in news

If there is someone who's glad about IIMs making it to the newspaper headlines, it's going to be me. I'm kind of praying everytime I go to the temple for such a thing to happen. But then, it doesn't happen so frequently, probably because I'm not frequenting temples these days.

We all know the controversy last year involving the HRD ministry and the IIMs. The issue regarding providing aid to IIMs pretty much made it to the front page of all the newspapers repeatedly for a week or so, and lot of people started saying that that was the best publicity IIMs ever got. It was quite true since I myself spoke about my admission to one of my old relative who said "Oh, that college that comes in the paper?". Trust me, I was glad. And 'glad' is an understatement of the century. For once, one of my relative recognized my college.

Recognition of my college was always a trouble for me. The whole thing started from my Engineering college days. I got into Govt. College of Technology, which was arbitrarily rated - by students - as fourth in TN, letting aside IIT Chennai. Whenever I speak about my college, my relatives always ask me why I "didn't get a seat" in Anna University or PSG or CIT. It was a nightmare to tell them that I got a Mechanical Engg. seat in Anna, an Electrical seat in PSG but I wanted Electronics. And the other college was rated below. But my college, being an institution run by the Government, was simply not as famous as the private ones, for reasons we all know. Oh how I used to wish I got into a 'famous' college!

A similar thing started to haunt me again, after I got into IIM-I. I met a relatively young and well educated relative of mine who was working in a public company. I told him I'm going to IIM, which is at Indore. The word 'Indore' confused him a lot. After figuring that it was in some remote 'Hindi speaking' area called Madhya Pradesh, he asked me whether it was safe to study there. "Train journeys, language issues" were abound, he told me. Worst was when he asked me why I didn't get an MBA seat in famous local colleges - PSG or Amrita. I said I didn't apply. He said I must've tried, and that I would've got a seat since he remembers me as an intelligent student - judged by the fact that I got a centum in Maths in standard XII. I was in no mood to convince him that centum is Maths is no reason to call a person intelligent since a frigging 1000 people get it every year. The conversation didn't end there. It was a shocker for him when I told him I left my 'high paying' job in a famous 'multinational' 'software' company.

There are times - when I meet people from B-school circles etc - I really don't regret my decision. But there are more times when common people don't recognize my 'institution of excellence'. Not that it really matters, but still: Sigh! It's a different thing that publicity is bullshit and IITs and IIMs are the last institutions that need them, but, like a child, I sincerely wish they are 'somewhat famous' - atleast to the level at which my relatives don't look down upon me!

I was reminded of the whole thing when I came across this news item. Somewhere in the corner of my mind, I hope HRD ministry does some goof up or it takes some clownish decision, and that makes it to papers all around. It would be even better if it happens just before my vacation, since recall rate would be high ;-) [Ok guys, don't throw tantrums on me. I'm simply tired of being looked upon as a loser!]

Ad zone: Imagination inside

I've been following quite a lot of advertisements these days, with several objectives in mind - for finding good ads, ones that bombed, getting pure entertainment, and to see how far imagination has stretched. I believe ad companies are one place where there are really intelligent and entertaining bunch of people working.

There were several good ones and several bad ones, and one or two surprising ones. Suggestive and sexy ads aren't anything new, but if its from an organization known for charity? Here's French red cross's online awareness ad: http://www.onepointtv.com/crf/. I guess the ad is achieving its purpose - in getting attention. Caution: Takes sometime to load, not check from a browsing center.

AgencyFaqs publishes a famous and interesting ad every day. If you aren't the one who follows it, check the following two ads.

I found the fodder ad that has a tag line "cows will give some much milk that you have to find new ways to milk them" very intelligent.

I don't know if the following ad has made it to the TV since I haven't see TV for a long time, but it is impressive. NDTV's "Truth minus hype, facts minus faction" campaign.

And yes, I get the message!

Men aren't those ol' men anymore?

Then there was an interesting study that says: Are marketers missing real men? A classique metros vs retros argument, which might not be completely applicable to Indians now. But it has some interesting information to mulch. A quote:

"While the world has been focused on women, men have been undergoing some significant changes of their own. An equally comprehensive look at men is long overdue, and it was our goal in Cannes to help put things in perspective. The last thing we want is to look back in ten years and find that we have unwittingly created the same clichés that female advertising is riddled with."

Or is it?

Trailblazers

On the trailers front, turn on your speakers, put them on full volume - especially the bass, and view the trailer of the movie Devil's Rejects. I had accidentally put the speakers in full mode and went bonkers before I found out which of the opened tabs was the rootcause of all the creepy shreaks. A classic teaser warning that would make you do the exact opposite: do not move the mouse around the website!

To end with a smile [Found on Seth Godin's blog]:

Sure of yourself?

In our Con-B (Consumer Behaviour) class today, our prof said "Five years later, send me a message that your class was useless, and I'll send you back a hundred bucks". That struck me. It's not often that we get to meet people with such a lot of poise. He had complete belief in what he was saying. I just adore people who are confident of what they are doing, and its no wonder I've already become a big fan of this prof.

It takes a lot of guts, courage, confidence and self-reverence to give a statement like that, particularly in front of an audience that is very, very notorious for critics. I can't help but think how many dilemmas we carry within. Just felt like posting this, probably for retro memories.