Great Lakes Term 5

Most eventful term. There were so many activities + events happened that I got barely anytime to study and even hit my blog. My whole term just went into organizing International Entrepreneurship Conference scheduled on 13th Jan, 2010. But, it was fun to do all that.
Damn, I think I read least in this term. At least I should pass. :P

Great Lakes Term 5 (25th Nov to 15th Jan, 2010)
Course Name	Facilitator	Positives	Delta (No negatives)	Any Comments
FSAV-1	Gerald Lobo, Professor & Arthur Andersen Chair in Accounting Department of Accountancy and Taxation Houston, Texas	Do anything you want. Calm Prof	A major disaster. I could not grab even a single bit. Boring.	There will be no change in voice tone for 3 hours. Monotonous. Change Prof please. Rating; .5/5
Global Financial Strategy	Dr. Krishnan Dandapani	Among few of the good finance/strategy Prof. Lot of energy and very good lectures preparation and informative notes. Good experience. Nice thing is he tells complex concepts in highly simplified manner.	None	Good Prof. Should come for few more subjects.
Pricing Strategy	Dr. Ram Krishnan, Professor of Marketing, University of Miami.	Energetic, Charming with a great sense of humor. Make jokes anytime anywhere and laughs even on him. Nice teacher. Great course with good concepts and lot of practical applications. Must take for all MBAs	None	Loved the Prof. Would like to do Ph.D - Marketing under him
Strategic Cost and Profitability Management	Uncle Bala (‘Padmashri’ Dr. Bala. V. Balachandran Professor Emeritus of Accounting Information & Management, Kellogg School of Management, Founder and Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management)	Who else could teach the course better than the Uncle Bala who is among the highest echelon of the Accounting. Touched concepts of most of the business areas.	The lectures were too less to absorb all concepts and get a lot out of the subjects	The energy level of Uncle Bala is just unmatchable. His each and every word motivates you to the core and puts so much confidence in you.
Services Management	Dr. V.S.Mahesh, director of Centre for Service Management at the University of Buckingham, England, which he founded in 1993. Over two decades of corporate experience, at Tata Administrative Service, Board of all Wipro companies as Corporate VP(HR).  A fuller profile is attached.	Good course for MBAs aspiring to go to service sector. Prof is the world renowned for service management research.	Classes are too less and too long.	Lecture on Threshold of motivation was very good. Guess that he can teach Human Resource Management very well.
Strategic marketing	Prof  Xavier, Great Lakes	Great facilitator. Enjoyed his witty comments.  Good classes and great method of mixing students’ presentation with lectures.	Sometime classes got boring.	Good facilitator with a great sense of humor.

Great Lakes Term 4

Very tiring term. Truly, LIP course was the major reason of it but even then this was all worth it. :)

Great Lakes Term 4 (5th Oct to 22nd Nov)
Course Name	Facilitator	Positives	Delta (No negatives)	Any Comments
Business Analytics	Dr Purba Rao	Very sweet and nice prof.  Good documents so that you can always refer later. A good knowledge of her course.	Sometime she starts interacts on one to one basis with students while whole classes of around 130 students are gossiping.	Nice experience to be taught by the Prof.
Consumer Behavior	Dr. Siva K. Balasubramanian Harold L. Stuart Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean Stuart School of Business, Illinois Institute of Technology	Good course. The book which was given is great.	Unable to relate the course material other than book with the course.	The course could be made more vibrant and interesting.
CRM	Prof  Xavier, Great Lakes	Great facilitator. Enjoyed his witty comments.  Good classes and great method of mixing students’ presentation with lectures.	Sometime classes got boring.	Good facilitator with a great sense of humor.
Distribution and Sales Mgmt	Prof VK Murthy	Best lecturer in marketing we ever got. The prof is the best in class. No gyaan, no bakwaas, only practical aspects and realities of sales job. No big assignment and case studies. Case studies and writeup were small but intelligently crafted.  Very professional too.	No delta	Would love to sit for his class anytime.
Investment Banking	Prof Ramanujam	Gives a lot of time to students to interact and resolve their problem.	Could not understand even a single bit about investment banking. Case studies were too large and made no sense to me. Moreover case studies were more about strategy rather than IB. Moreover, the sessions were meant for finance experts not for amateur like us.	Keep less case study and more basics.
Leadership, Influence and Power	Prof Venkat R. Krishnan	Aah…here comes the subject and the Prof I almost rever. The Prof has an amazing method of teaching. Moreover he is best prepared for his lecture. The course is just not about business but about our overall life of us, organization and society. Few concepts were enthralling that you will just keep on thinking for many days about the same.	NONE except that there is a lot of compulsory reading which make you burn mid-night oil whole of the term. But it’s worth it. J	The subject is the best you may get at great lakes. I will recommend this subject to all MBA students. You understand nuances of working into the organization and day to day politics.
Quintessentials of Doing Business in the 'Middle Kingdom	Prof G Venkataraman	Nice Prof. Some stories about china were quiet good.	Was not interested much to learn more about China.	Such subjects could be great if students here have time. We have no time left to enjoy such arts/culture oriented subjects.

Great Lakes Term 3

A very tiring yet the most memorable and eventful is Term is over.

Great Lakes Term 3 (10th Aug to 25th Sept)
Course Name	Facilitator	Positives	Delta (No negatives)	Any Comments
Human Resource Management	Dr. PVR Murthy,a Product of IIMC (FPM) with close to 30 Years experience in HR- currently CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants, Chennai Mr. R Shantaram, XLRI Product with close to 20 Yrs rich HR Experience Ms. S Vijayalakshmi, a product of XLRI, currently with Unilever Ms. Vidhyaa M, a product of XIMB, currently with Orchid Pharma Mr. David Nallathambi, a product of XLRI, currently VP HR with Standard Chartered Mr. V Balaji,Head HR with HCL -BFSI	The course has been experimented first time at Great Lakes in which 7 HR managers/heads from top companies of India were invited to give session on Human Resource Management. The sessions were full of practical knowledge about industry HR practices through the vast experiences of the industry experts. Most of the sessions were like open session - "coffee breaks" where any kind of question was welcome.	Due to many facilitators, the course was not well organized. Lectures were not well connected with each other. Less Student connect due to less time available with each facilitator.	The course was a big time experiment. However, the course was successful to let student take-away the experience of HR experts. I liked the lecture of V. Balaji and Orchestra video showed by him in his class
Investment Analysis	B Venkatesh, Founder of Navera Consulting	Among the best course of the Term 4. The facilitator is just awesome. He doesn’t deliver you the bookish knowledge instead gives you the practical insights about what really happens in the market. His personality, voice, tone and expressions all are in complete alignment of his ideas and thoughts that he deliver.	Bigger class size	Awesome facilitotor. Very professional. The kind of person you would like to be.
Information Technology for Managers	Prof . Sunil Rai (NMIMS)/Prof. Sundar Raj	Didn't get much problem due to my IT background. The presentation system was good to make all 262 participate.	The second half of the course was highly research oriented and theoretical, which made course tiring to study. For non-IT, the course was incomprehensible.	Research studies could have been avoided instead the future of IT in simple term and language could have been introduced.
Market Research	Dr Bharadwaj	Great course and the facilitator. Practical and interesting. Smaller class size	Slept sometimes due to information overflow.	Good course. Lot of information in last few quant lectures.
Organizational Behavior	Prof Jayavelu (IIMK)/Prof Irudayaraj (XLRI)	The course was full of common organization/leadership/team issues and operations. It’s exciting to see that intellectuals have done so much about human and social psychology. What all thought process happens has been penned down by people already.	Prof Jayavelu was not able to establish great rapport with students. Conflicts happened into the class. First half of the course just went without much learning.	Prof Irudayaraj is a great facilitator for the course. This XLRI professor could motivate and mesmerize from is simple yet effective small lecture. Great learning from him. His way of teaching just makes subkect like Org Behavior so interesting. Hope to have complete course by him next year. Feedback has been given.
Strategy	Prof Sriram	Fun to read varied strategies of top business honchos and resolve the complex business issues just by simple but out of the box thoughts. Prof Sriram is a great speaker. All cases what we discussed were on tips.	The cases were too old and did not bring the vision of the future changes and strategies which is about to come. Few strategies are obsolete to follow in current scenario.	Actually my expectation from the course was a lot more. How the strategy are created from scratch? how to select strategy out of many option?
Mandarin (Chinese)	Prof. Devakunjari	Great teacher. Should write a book - "Chinese made easy" from his written hand-outs. Lot of material collected to master Chinese anytime.	The course has become boring due to same pattern of pedagogy from last 2 terms.	Teaching style is too motherly and caring. Highly lovable teacher. The pedagogy should have many flairs like videos, Chinese guests to keep the interest level high among students. Anyways I can proudly say that I know Chinese.

17th Aug, 09 : The Birthday "Bakra" & "Baratis"

Main programs by/for the birthday "baraat": 

Waiting("baraat" waiting) -> Planning("baraat" planning) -> Spamming("baraat" spams) -> Scaring(("bhai log" scaring me) -> Pulling -> Pinching -> Washing(at Lakes)  -> Patting (beating) -> Rolling (in sand) -> Smashing (the cake) -> Dancing(Choli ke peeche) ->Singing(dhak dhak) -> Drinking(RC) -> Fighting (not known) -> Thanking(to u all:)

Count: 100+ Baraatis
Food: 1 Bakra

7th August, 2009 - Today is my birthday. Never thought that the day will be such a memorable day. Great Lakers already planned for almost “Ending” me on my Birth.

Reason: I have not spared even a single person from the merciless birthday bumps and didn't leave even a single opportunity of smashing the cake/ice-cream. I just love to do all that even after trying to stop myself. But “butt”, could not help ;). So everybody was waiting from a long time to kick my ass. People already started spamming and planning how to butcher me. I was pretty perplexed with the whole situation. :D

Few Preparation by me: While I didn't tell anyone but here are the few preparations done by me. From 9:00 PM, I started mailing personally to few people to support me. Also visited few “bhai log” to meet personally and to keep them less aggressive at least. After taking few consolations from “bhai log”, I started padding work at 11:00 PM. The padding included 1+1+1 under wear, then a cushy towel, then my swimming costume, then my rugged short-pant, then hankies in the back pockets. All this to save my sweet ASS…;)

All guys started collecting near to my room by 11:30 PM itself. Few were waiting to start slaughter game and others wanted not to lose the fun. Whatever it is most importantly I am the GOAT here. It was as if before Dusshera Ravan’s effigy fire, children become too excited about the fire-game.

Correct at 12, people pull me out of the room and started beating, pulling and what and what not. 

(Pinching: Left to right: Sushil "Burnol", Varun "Bday Bakra", Mitesh, Manjit "Daarji", Gaurav, Angad "Chota Muthu")

Soon there was a full “baraat” to have fun of the slaughter.  I think there were around 100 Great Lakers. I tightened my Ass as anybody out of 100 would have screwed them up anytime.

The “baraat” then dragged me towards the pavements. Now few of the “bhai log” wanted to kick me, so they tried to take me towards the basket ball court. But there was another “bhai-log” gang who wanted to take me for a bath in the dirty lakes of Great Lakes.  Yukkkk…whatever was the final decision I was the BAKRA. Finally the latter gang won and I have been dragged towards the “great” lakes. Hitesh, Aravind, and Mohit were busy in taking picture of the BAKRA and the “baraatis” while Charu was taking full fledged LIVE video of the grand BAKRA event.

Santosh, Sushil and Akhil were highly excited to throw me into lakes as soon as possible. Finally, CHAPPAAK,  I was immersed in water. I made a history here. The first person to take a bath in lakes of Great Lakes...;) Then CHAPPAAAAK, Sushil was also in the water. People pushed him. Bechara!!!     

(Creating History: The first person to take bath in the lake of Great Lakes)

As soon as I came out of the lake. Everybody started hitting wherever possible. Well the padding was also of no use after getting soaked in water. Moreover I didn't do any padding for my back :P.

Then “baraatis” took me to our sand volley-ball court. I have been asked to lay down on sand. As a slave I followed “bhai log” instructions as it was their day. I could not utter any word against any one as I made and will make ball for rest of the 364 days. As soon as I lay down, people started rolling me on sand. Damn…it was sand everywhere and it pricks too.  

(Sand rolling)

Vignesh was already ready with the cake just after the sand rolling. He was holding the cake in hands. I understood his wild intentions. The cake is not for consumption but it’s only for a Smash on my face. So as soon as I put the knife into the cake, the whole cake was “licking” my face.

(Pic: Super Smash Cake presented by Vignesh)

My eyes holes were all full of cake and unable to open eyes as if somebody put the fevi-kwik between eye-lids, people were singing happy birthday. Then asked few people to remove the cake from eyes. Meanwhile few people took advantage and kicked a few. Right timing…the guys are still safe even now due to temporary sight loss. Wished I should have kept few “khabris” in the “baraat”. 

 (Smashhhhhh!!! will not leave u Vignesh...wait for ur next bday)


After "licking", I mean removing cake, danced had a couple dance with Mukul after making him equally dirty by hugging. 

(Pic: Dance with Mukul, Left to right: Anuj, Varun "Bday Bakra", Mukul, Santosh, Himanshu "HeManShoo"

Then “barattis” took me at Great Lakes Piazza for next ”bakra” round. Manjit was asking all kind of questions which he generally asks from everyone. I tried to avoid it as it meant inviting bigger troubles. He he…

“Baraatis” as well as “Badmassh launde” wanted to be delighted by some show. I have been asked me to dance on “Choli ke peeche kya hai”, so they sang and I did a SEXY dance on “Choli ke peeche kya hai”. After that “baratis” asked me to sing something hot. Not to disappoint them I stated singing Madhuri’s “Dhak-dhak karne laga” and kept giving Madhuri’s dancing steps just to keep all guys laughing and happy.

 (Guys after Cake Smashing event, Left to right: Kumaravel, Ankur, Gaurav, Santosh, Vignesh(back), Akhil, Sushil "Burnol", Manjit "sardarji", chauhan and jay)

People were very happy with the overall event happened after 12. Vignesh specially congratulated me for such an eventful night. No other birthday has been so successfully “launched” till now. 

(Ending the Ceremony, Left to right: Kumaravel, Gaurav, Anuj, Aravind(front), Varun "Bday Bakra", Mukul, Himanshu "HeManShoo", Ayush "Body waale baba", Mitesh and Manjit) 


No party without drinks. The arrangement was all done already in advance with the help of M, V, H etc. Few dignitaries from “Baraat” were invited to enjoy the Daroo party. We drank like pigs, danced like peacock, sang like nightingale, played like Sachin and later fought like Bulls. Yes, few “launde” including me lost balance after daroo and had a big fight on some issue which I didn't know but just fought. LOL

So that’s how my 2Xth birthday has been celebrated. Hope to see more birthday celebrations coming and adding unforgettable and cherishable moments to our life at Great Lakes. Thanks to “Baraaati”, “Bhai Log” and “Badmas Launde” and all Great Lakers to make it such a memorable and grand moment.

PS: Thanks a lot to Hitesh, Mohit, Aravind for pics and Charu for taking the videos.