Yamini: The night that shone bright

Come 25th January each year and IIMB becomes the host to Indian Classical music afficados of Bangalore. The dusk-to-dawn music festival Yamini hosted five stalwarts this year - Bharatanatyam by Padma Bhushan Smt Alarmel Valli, Hindustani vocal by Dr. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, Carnatic vocal by Padma Bhushan Vidwan TN. Sheshagopalan, Carnatic flute by Vidwan Shashank Subramanyam and Hindustani violin by Vidwan Kala Ramnath.

The beautiful landscape, the cool night and the mesmerizing music sent the whole crowd into a trans like state. Some swinging their heads in rhythm. Some eyes-closed, looking up the night sky. If the blissful music soothes one and all, the event itself is provides a rare opportunity for us students to meet our respected professors and their families in a relaxed setting.

So another year's wait begins for the next Yamini. And lest I forget, wishing all my countrymen a happy 64th year of our proud Indian Republic.. and who knows, maybe a five-thousandth year of our civilization and culture :-)

Dear Reader, You Are Our Hero!

PGSEM blog was revived in April last year and we have completed 30,000 hits in the last 1 year 3 months. Readers - Alumni, students, PGSEM aspirants, MBA enthusiasts - continue to be our source of inspiration and make us strive to bring out information about our PGSEM life onto this public platform despite juggling work, studies and family.

Do continue to support us, leave us a message about our content or anything that you liked about our posts. Young blood gets infused every year and we will keep you posted about our journey year on year.

Dear reader, you are our hero.

Happy Reading!

A 'Good' Friday

PGSEM 2009 student Sanjeev Kumar PS has a unique experience to share:

We have got inspired by them, We look upto them, we are proud of them... They are our Armed forces!
There is a program ongoing in IIMB for officers from Armed forces. Participants include guiness book record holders, commandos, brigadiers etc.  

PGSEM students hosted a buffet lunch for these wonderful people on Good Friday. The day really turned out to be literally a "good" Friday. PGSEM students met them in person to get inspired, listen to their leadership thoughts and of course to increase their networking.

As the armed forces shared their stories with pride, PGSEM students listened to them with great intent. There were stories of valour that were heart wrenching and at the same time inspiring. 

At the end of the day, it was PGSEM students who felt more proud to have spent some quality time with these great country men who have offered so much to our nation!

Diwali break that was

It’s been an end to a very festive season here in India and the school gears to start the PGSEM classes this Friday. Most students have utilized the time to network and catch up with family. Even though the end term is lurking just 3 weeks ahead, it was time to unwind and stretch considering the whole batch was finishing up the R assignment till 2 days before Diwali. This was the time when almost all groups would have worked remotely, a very important aspect of today's business world. Learning to balance leisure and work is as good a lesson at MBA School as is the actual subject.

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Coming to the R package: I cannot end this post without a few words of appreciation for this excellent statistical tool. Beyond a class on introducing the various possibilities at R, most of the learning happened through moodle (An open source collaborative platform). It was a collective effort of many that could help everyone learn the nuances of R. Working on R reminds you of beginner days as a programmer where you know what to do logically but have to read a lot of stuff on internet to actually accomplish it. Possibilities of R package are amazing and with so many folks with IT background, I am waiting for the date when all share their assignment outcomes. For now I’d say there’s some interesting data that we’re analyzing.

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The activities at campus would have already picked up, number of remaining classes before end term is dwindling and so most of the students would be putting their head down to study and various student committees would get into action for upcoming events. The first of which is the open house for the prospective students. What you get out of an MBA depends to a great extent on how well your short term and long term goals are aligned with what the institute offers. So my advice to those interested is to contemplate and come prepared to the open house where you can see the campus, get your questions clarified and most importantly meet the current students.

Till then have a smooth transition to some interesting work. Cheers!