Salsa Workshop

Written by Urshila Ghag, PMIR 2010-12.

Dracula (Dramatics and Cultural Association) at XLRI organized a Salsa workshop which was conducted by DNAdanceworks. DNA, short for ‘Dorothy and Amit’ worked their magic, along with Rubin and Jon, on XLers at midnight on 9th and 10th August. DNAdanceworks is a Kolkata based company who played the dance wizards for two nights transforming XLers into graceful, glamorous salsa dancers.

Dorothy and Amit have 14 years of experience in teaching various Latin American dances and are also well versed in jazz, hiphop, b-boying and have choreographed for many movies. For two days, everyone learnt salsa moves such as the open break, the comb, the cross body lean and a variety of what came to be called ‘sexy moves’ and heedless of time, everyone danced and twirled into the wee hours of the morning.

With over 60 couples registered, anticipation and excitement ran high. On the second day there was social dancing where the girls went around the room, switching partners. With the spirit of salsa touching everyone present, the scene sizzled with joy, exhilaration and togetherness, another unique example encapsulating what XL culture is all about.

Life at XLRI: Observations, impressions and more….

Here in XL, no two days are same. Each day bring something new to add to yourself, each class shakes up a belief somewhere. Aha-moments et al . What makes the experience amazing is the excellent camaraderie among 600 people strong student body on campus.

Here are two new experiences for you, which capture these emotional upheavals(Please note that I used “experience” very deliberately as XL experiences can’t really be read or narrated;  you gotta just “live” them to understand them!):

http://whatitees.com/2010/07/15/the-mba-pictionary/

http://nikunjverma.com/2010/08/09/synergy-and-collaboration-this-is-what-a-bschool-should-look-like/

Heil XL!

Adventure Trip by XLRI: a transformational experience…

 

You might or might not be aware that XLRI sends all its students(BM/PMIR/GMP) to a 3 day outdoor trip organized by Tata Steel Adventure Foundation. To sample more such activities, you may click here.

Though this trip had “adventure” as the underlying theme, it actually transcends adventure in several counts. It is a fantastic team building and leadership exercise. It helps you understand your batchmates and create bonds with them. What more, it even leads you to discover unknown areas of your personalities. To say it all in one shot, I would say it helps you work on your Johari’s window:

 

So in the above picture, you would find that this trip will help you work on the areas mentioned above in the above picture. That is, you might be able to reduce the “Facade”, “Blind spot” and “Unknown” sections, while increasing your “Open Arena” sections.

Every year each of our batches in XLRI go to this “adventure” trip and come back from it with new insights, new strengths and many lifelong memories.

You can read some such experiences here:

Rohit VM's (GMP 10-11 batch) experience

Andrew Panton’s (XLRI visitor) experience

Ankit Chordia's (GMP 09-10 batch) experience

A trip through the rural India: Hats off to human ability to survive!

You might be aware that XLRI prides itself as one of the most socially focused bschools in India. Many of the faculty we have here are socially inclined and are actively working in the area of social and rural development.  See this recent news item second social entrepreneurship conference

Anyway, coming back to the topic. Half of our batch is just back from the two day village tour, cris-crossing the tough terrain of Jharkhand’s rural region. The experience we had was almost “soul changing”.  We went through a range of feelings. Here is my attempt to describe them in words:

How lucky we were, but still we complained endlessly: Think of yourself in this setting- Poles and wires but no electricity. No roads. Nearest market 30 kms away. Water drying up in wells and handpumps. No rains in sight. And if these development related mess was not enough, you have naxalite issues. So no venturing out after the sun sets - you may be caught between the armed forces and the naxalite faceoff.

And compare this to the constant gripe we had in our urban life style. A pothole, an hour power cut, noise pollution and what not.

This world is not short of heroes: Most of us mortals try to contribute in bits and pieces, once in a while. A donation to Greenpeace/CRY and donating old clothes, etc is where our efforts stop. And at the other end, there are the heroes. We observed the efforts of NGO activists whose efforts were not subdued by mountains of problems. No roads, inaccessible hilly areas, doubting villagers and tribal. They face it all and more. Routinely they have a brush with naxalites but they hit the roads the next day in the same undying spirit. As another example of a hero, we met a teacher who completed higher studies from a top college but went back to his village to teach people. And he did teach well- inspiring the kids to learn and become “big” people like us. But are we really “big” is the question pestering my mind right now.

So after all this description you must be beginning to grow emotional and even pitiful., Don’t be as now its the turn to become envious.

Circumstances lead to great solutions: You would think that words like Microfinance, balance sheet, PLR, risk appetite, 24/7 credit, penalty for absence, etc. would be Greek to people living in the remotest corners of rural landscape. I am sorry but I have a picture to change your egoistic thought:

This is a simple account of a group of 19 villagers. They pool their savings to form a fund and they can borrow from this pool when they need money. They meet every week and every person needs to contribute a savings of Rs 5 at minimum. This makes them save for the bad times. They issue passbooks and do basic security of money by keeping the key and the money box with their different people. This responsibility changes each week. They maintain detailed MoMs for each meeting(Satyam board needs to learn a thing or two) and every week discuss a problem and generally form a consensus about the solution(we MBA students need to learn lessons as in our meeting ”minutes are created but hours are lost”).

We will fight and trump the odds:  Its their in the spirits- Life is tough but we are tougher. Little kids marched on with perfect discipline, punctuality and great sincerity, flip flopping to their hostel rooms, classes and the play grounds. The behavior was exemplary- they played sports with competitiveness but still respected the rules and cared for their school chums. In our 2 day stay at the school(it was a boarding school) we never heard a loud noise, saw even a minor brawl or witnessed someone crying. And this when they were far away from their parents and mostly just got a plate of rice and a bowl of waterish dal. These pictures kind of sum the hopes and contentment these kids displayed:

 

I could have written a lot more but I think words are never going to be enough. Thank you XLRI, as the trip was an eye opener for all of us.  It has brought us closer to our other country brethrens and also at peace with our inner selves. We now much appreciate the human spirit to fight and survive, against all human created and natural odds. We are humbled and as surely our future decisions as the managers and corporate leaders will be much more inclusive and sensitive in light of this trip.

With this, I would leave you with some other pictures from our trip, which give you the flavor of how it was. All pictures are courtesy our ace photographer Naren and a junior photographer Junaid. Thanks you guys!

 

Unfolding of 2nd National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship @ XLRI

The following is a pictorial unfolding of the 2nd National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship @ XLRI (Jan 29-31, 2010)...

2nd National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship - slideshow



(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwFynZJ06N8

Summer Internship Process - Coming Full Circle

Slot 0. Slot 1. Slot 2. Slot 3. Rolling. Internship. PPO. Back to XL. Interviews. Slot 0. Slot 1. Slot 2...

This summer, yet another bunch of students will strap their bags on, leave XL and board trains or flights to reach the HQs/branches of the companies where they will intern for approximately two months. A motley bunch- doctors, engineers, accountants, psychologists - most of them will be long past the initial seven days packed with confusion, uncertainty, swearing and the 'Man, it's so frikkin arbit!' feeling of when they sat for their SIP 2010 interviews. I won't have forgotten, nor will have most seniors- after all, this is our second SIP interview process. Once before, we were in the hot seat, overwhelming Small Auditorium with our suits, questions and hopes, cracking smiles when the last thing we wanted to do was to smile, staring straight ahead when we wanted to avoid an over-friendly sympathizer, politely holding back sheer disbelief when someone whom we felt didn't deserve it got a prize placement offer, peering at the brown board covered with SIP 2009 announcements- some new, some old- and asking our friends in one moment of open anxiety, "Yaar, mera ho jaayega na?", trying to hide a pang of jealousy when a close friend gained a better offer than we did, and celebrating with crazed relief, tired out but so, so happy that we were 'signed out of the process'.

This time, we're the seniors - we served, we controlled, we coordinated, we handled the logistics, we formatted CVs and one bunch of us spent sleepless nights to help place the entire batch. Also, the same people who sat in that auditorium, mostly feeling lost, anxious or confused, stepped in to provide Valuable Advice for the juniors; we offered our Excellent Tips on Company Pecking ("No, no, A is always better than B, yaar, kyunki maine suna hai ki last year X who interned there told Y ki..."); we provided our Critical and Comprehensive CV Reviewing Services ("Dude, why don't you put all your Positions of Responsibility in this format? Max shortlists this way, trust me. And remember, tere saare internship details ko aise aam aadmi language mein HI likhna, otherwise recruiters won't understand, machi!"); we bestowed upon them our Sure Shot Interview Academia Primer ("Boss", with a heavy sigh guaranteed to create mass nervousness in juniors, "sabse pehle, jaake dekh ki Theory X aur Theory Y dono mein se which is what... Yeh sab pakka poochenge, PAKKA. DEFinitely coming in UGJIK company's interview, man."); and to top off the line up of services, we added the finishing touch: Our V V Special Tips To Handle Horror GDs and Ace Intimidating Interviews ("Start and finish evvvvery GD. Make your presence felt. Smile confidently and tell the interviewer if you don't know something - he will be hazaar impressed with your straightforwardness.)

Let's face it - SIP is a bit like life. Heck, it IS life, played over on a considerably smaller stage. The defining theme is randomness, of the highest order. And yet we will continue, batch after batch, to believe in such concepts as perfectly made offer-getting CVs (snort!), the correct answer to a company's subjective questions in its form, advice from 93 people to get the better of the Great Pecking Tamasha and a common set of tips to acing GDs and PIs (don't even get me started on this one). It is ironic if nothing else that we invest some much of time and energy in what process is essentially a function of uncertainty. However, things are remarkably different on the other side of the spectrum, and I know how I will feel, come CRP - so less of the sarcasm from me and more from Ground Zero.

I helped a tiny little bit in coordinating some parts of SIP 2010, and my role being much easier than others, I got the chance to observe the play of events inside the audi. I observed, partly curious, sometimes helpless, and sometimes just proud at how my- our- juniors were, for the most part, handling SIP 2010; after all, they were battling the sharpest force of nature - uncertainty. There were those who stood up to the pressure calmly and shrugged off rejects, though they undoubtedly had their quiet moments of worry; those who broke down only to rise again; those who sat friendless, slightly removed from the clutter of people all around, and celebrated solitary and silently when they were placed; those who sailed through the process on the first day but stayed on to cheer, encourage and support their friends and batch-mates. Moments of heartwarming bonding, and moments that made me shake my head. The public nature of this post prevents me from taking names, but some of you absolutely rock, you guys, your friends won't forget how you stood by them. Hats off.

From SIP, last year and this one, I have some observations. Some you may know, others you may recognize, and even disagree with some. One, SIP is and will always be unpredictable, so the hype can be reduced. The Hype is the worst part- nothing creates pressure like the talk. Two, there will always be people who will take it in their stride and people who will break, and the unexpected often occurs. Some build respect for the calm with which they handle the entire process. It's called maturity. No amount of mock anythings will help the breakers and none are needed for the steady rocks, but the majority lies somewhere in between and wholehearted support from a senior batch helps. (Incidentally, I had a wonderful senior student coordinator last year called Meetesh Jha - he kept me from pressing my ever-ready panic button. Trust me, It Helps.) Three, there is life beyond SIP, which it is very easy to forget those seven days. Those who remember and put things in perspective make life easier for themselves.

A good number of people in this junior batch did keep things in perspective. Today, they're all placed for summers. And so next summer, they'll strap their bags on, and leave XL and board trains or flights to reach the HQs/branches of the companies where they will intern for approximately two months. A motley bunch- who started out not knowing where they'd end up, but all of whom made the cut, in the tradition of every batch before them.

Congratulations, Class of '11. Nice work. Rock your summers! :-)

Joy of Giving Week @ XLRI - Part 3

... the concluding clip of the activities during JGW: