IIFMight

Time to start again!!!

2011-03-23T17:40:00.003+05:30

More than a year has passed when I left those lofty gates. But still, not even a single day has gone, when I have not missed them.

I don’t have words to express my gratitude to IIFM. Wherever I am standing now, it’s because of that alma mater of mine. And, I am sure many of you must be feeling the same.

After passing out from there, I had so many new experiences and believe me all those new experiences would not have happened had I not joined IIFM.

“Why IIFM”?
The question which started from GD/PI…. And still, continues…..

I really feel so sad to see that this page is not so happening as it was thought of during the days of its inception. This page was meant to reconnect with each other. I know all of us are busy in our daily lives juggling between office and home, field visits and desk work, starting with new endeavors….

But still, we can definitely take out some time to write a blog for this platform now and then.

We owe at least this much to IIFM!!!

A proud IIFMight!!!

Swati Agrawal
(PFM’10)

B-School Shutterbug: We missed it!!

2010-07-24T13:59:00.003+05:30

http://www.pagalguy.com/2010/07/hold-thy-breaths-the-winners-of-the-b-school-shutterbug-photo-contest-2010/

I just stumbled upon this link on pagalguy.com . A B-School Shutterbug Photo Contest. Can't believe that there are no entries from IIFM.. A beautiful campus and some really super-talented photography enthusiast.. I think we missed this because we could not get the information in time.. or we were too lazy (or too busy doing assignments) to showoff our campus and talent.. ;-)

Daksh: the business plan competition

2010-07-20T09:04:00.002+05:30

Entrepreneurship Development Cell, IIFM conducted an event last year on 21st November called Entrepreneurship summit and Daksh the B-plan competition.

Following is the link of the video uploaded showing the highlights of the
event.

Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKe_Aammrfg

If you are facing problems in viewing the video online then you can
download the 10 min(76 Mb) video from the following link

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B-lQCOQDxYyQYjdmNTRhZWYtNzE3NC00NGE2LThjMjgtZjJhNTA2MDkyMjZh&sort=name&layout=list&num=50

Entrepreneurship Development Cell
IIFM, Bhopal
email: edc@iifm.ac.in

IIFMight needs contributors.

2010-07-17T20:04:00.004+05:30

After a long time I tried posting something on this blog, but nothing came to my mind.. yeah nothing came to my mind that can be fit for a post on this particular blog. I do update my other blog once in a while but I write on this only when I have something which is related to IIFM. I realized that I have exhausted myself and have not much to share about my experience with IIFM/at IIFM /about IIFM.

So I am making a request to the current batch of students and other alumni to contribute to this blog to keep this alive. The search rankings and my interaction with IIFM aspirants ( I came to know them as the administrator of this blog) suggest that this blog is quite popular for people looking about information on our alma mater. So we have some good incentives to keep this blog alive and make it content rich. Even for many alumni this serves as one of the main resources to get updates on campus happenings and an indirect way to connect to students. But moreover, it serves all those IIFM aspirants who want to know more about IIFM and IIFMights (the official resources do not do justice on this front).

I would appreciate if members of the current batch (specially the members of clubs such as Literary or Media and Communication Club) can take some time out to contribute.

2010-01-18T21:39:00.001+05:30

I have gone to the Forest

Since March 2009, I left IIFM the second best place I ever lived in, after my home. As all other IIFMights believed, it was the time a new journey began. As the focus point changed, in came a new camera position, the new organisation, new forms, dead shapes. Trying to setup a visual rhythm seemed to come naturally. All of a sudden, I was in a forest of ‘Iron and Steel’, rather than a forest that I might dream of.

I started in a big way. My first conference with international fraternity, in a five star hotel, discussing core issues of food security over an affluent lunch. Surprisingly, everyone was so serious about a piggy bank sum of money, that is the “Chirag” of Aladdin. Coincidentally, both the families of Aladdin are poor, the earlier one as well as the latest one. But the icing on the cake is that many “Aladdin” are getting the different “Chirags” and all of them are working. Hope, some Aladdin will also get the daughter of the King.

Many of my class mates and alumni’s are designing and selling these “Chirags”. The great day will come soon, where every “Chirag” would flaunt the label “Made by IIFMight”.

Research and Health were the two sides of a coin, which I got first in my piggy bank. Both were excellently drawn by Rumi’s “Magic Pen”. Health and IIFM – Surprised !!!. But, when things were written by the “Magic Pen”, you know what happened. IIFMights have established a firm ground in this field as well. This may give a new dimension to many of the forest birds having a good eye in “Health” based research and there are still enough pages remaining to be written upon with your “Magic Pen”.

“Mr. CC” is shouting, saying “See See, what you have done”. But why, am I not able to see anything, in my AC cabin with my laptop ON, with the room illuminated by lights during day time. Oh “Mr. CC”!! I have not done anything. Let me check the outside world. Then I met IIFMights again in Mr. CC’s party, having one capital obviously not Delhi, its intellectual capital. Like me, many were good friends of Mr. CC, his brother, Mr. Kyoto and their family members: CERs, VERs, REDD, Vulnerability, Adaptation, Risk, Hazard and Variability, many more..........

The fraternity of Mowglis is also roaming with latest gadgets in their hands, capturing black strips on the yellow canvas. Also, they want some “Payments” either in cash or cheque from Aladdin for services like water, oxygen and some more natural assets. A conflict between luxury and survival. But, Mowglis are in the forest, its destiny.

Our thinking box resplendent with innovation, is made up of Forest. Still, IIFMights are thinking out of the box to plant a new sapling in this dense forest. My memories shiver for one good saying “Anyone can see a forest fire, the skill lies in sniffing the first smoke.”

Even today, my brain is baffled by many queries and still, “I Have No Answers”. While sitting on the rocks of the sunset point at old fort, I fondly remembered (sunset point of IIFM) and my heart says “I have gone to the Forest”.

Two plus two years later....

2010-01-07T12:33:00.010+05:30

Last week when i was going through the pile of snaps on my hard disk, i found the ones taken a month into IIFM, with the batch mates still trying to know each other and adjust to each other. The first two months are a good enough measure of what life is going to be at IIFM over the next two years.

Passing out of IIFM , one tends to feel sad. You think of the time you spent with your friends over the last two years and then all of a sudden you realise that this is it... No more late for class syndrome...No more news paper wrapped breakfasts...No more 5 minute extensions for submitting the assignments...No more late night chai's at Nehru Nagar !!!!

First month into the job and you invariably feel that you are a misfit. You are a misfit for the kind of work that you are doing, you are a misfit for the kind of town you are staying in and you are a misfit for your clothes as well (Weight issues etc:))

What after 2 years ?? Post two years you realize a few things...You are not a complete misfit after all. Work is good once you start enjoying what you are doing, finding the work that you really enjoy doing is the tricky part (I've been lucky enough to get the work that i really enjoy a month into my job) The seniors from IIFM are always around to teach you the tricks n trades of the new job (They are there to watch your back at times when you goof up) Its something which keeps passing on to every generation from IIFM who joins a new organization.. By 2 years you also start to see the future much more positively, this confidence comes with good work to back you up.

You also realise that its not possible to keep in touch with buddies as frequently as you promised to, but then you take consolation from the fact that all the marriages in the batch are like mini alumni meets and get togethers for the batch. You end up scolding the others about not calling you more often etc etc. and the same excuse always manages to shine through "I was swamped with work" and somehow thats the response you want, its great to see all the buddies doing well in their respective jobs and what better a measure than "Lots of work !!!!!"

IIFM always ends up giving you more than what you expected, be it career wise or be it in terms of the close friendships for life.... it manages to surprise you when you are least expecting it.

So four years after setting foot at IIFM for the first time, all I can say that it has been good. Really good !!!!!!!!!!

A walk in the Niligiri

2009-12-04T15:23:00.002+05:30

Standing over the high ridge of the Nilgiri Tahr Mukurthi National Park, I realised that walking across an area of 5,520 sq km was not going to be easy. But in the light of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve representing a microcosm of the diverse forests of Southern India, it was worth the effort...Our plan was to estimate wild honey bee colonies in the region. Starting from the Rajiv Gandhi National Park in Karnataka, we moved downwards to cover the entire biosphere. In the process, we gathered interesting information on honey bee populations and gained a larger perspective about the state of the forests in the Reserve.

Our alum Kunal Sharma writes about his journey in the Nilgiris in Deccan Herald.. Click here to read the full article..

IIFM All India Alumni Meet on 1st November, 2009

2009-10-02T03:25:00.000+05:30

Greetings from IIFM !!!

It's our pleasure to inform you that the IIFM All India Alumni meet'Reminiscence' will be held on the 1st of November 2009.It is one of those eagerly awaited moments when the whole IIFM family comes together under one roof to interact with faculty, catch up with old friends and bring old memories back to life. And to make this moment possible your presence is indispensable. So do grace the occasion by being there. We request you to kindly send in your confirmation to us to allow us to make the necessary arrangements.

We are trying to expand our Alumni database so that we can get in touch with the people who have worked in the industry and have helped in building the brand IIFM of which we are a part. The central database for all purposes is at www.iifmalumni.com. You are requested to upload your details here. It will be a great help if we can get contacts of your batch mates or other IIFMights you are in touch with. It will also help us to invite them for the meet.

Looking forward to your invaluable support. Help us spread the word.

Alumni Affairs Committee
Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal

IIFMights in News

2009-08-27T23:25:00.003+05:30

Outlook Business's special edition on Social Entrepreneurship covers two of our alumni working in social enterprise space. Mr. Vineet Rai, one of the most known names in socially responsible investing has been featured as an expert on social investing, while Mr. Vijay Pratap Singh of Ekgaon Technologies has been featured as on of the 50 social entrepreneurs who are changing the nation. Here is the link for online article:
http://business.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?261392

On the similar note, there have been some new additions to growing club of 'Social Entrepreneurs from IIFM'. Jaspal Shakya and Abhishek Chaudhury, both from PFM 06 batch have turned entrepreneurs. Abhishek Chaudhury has started a development consultancy firm 'Innovantage' and Jaspal aims to establish a fair-trade compliant carbon neutral supply chain of environment friendly handicrafts through 'EarthDreams'.

Watch for this space for more detailed info on these two ventures.

IIFM Student Clubs in news

2009-07-14T15:58:00.001+05:30

Nayi Duniya (a leading Hindi daily) has covered IIFM student clubs quite brilliantly :). Nice to see IIFM clubs getting much needed media space.

Here is the link for the article।

5 Yrs of IIFMight :)

2009-06-12T21:07:00.006+05:30

Next week this blog will be 5 years old and the guy writing this post will complete five years in IIFM family, 2 years as a student and 3 years as an alumnus. But those who abhor my narcissistic tendencies (yeah.. I have them in abundance.. I have a personal blog to brag about myself) should not worry as I am writing about the blog (to the extent possible) and not about myself.

The blog was result of the frustrations of a prsopective IIFM applicant who tried to search online about the institute and all he got was IIFM official website providing the 'official information' in very very 'official manner' (yes, those days the website used to be as moody as anything can be.. most often not working on weeekends and too slow on the weekdays). Somehow that prospective IIFM applicant made it to the final list of selected students and remembering his frustration of futile web-searches and very low web footprint of this wonderful institute created this blog. And IIFMight came into existence.

Those days (2004, when blogging was still in nascent phase in India) the posts on this blog ranged from occassional mail forwars to updates on campus activities, the later primarily done by the respective club coordinators. In between there were some sprinklings of campus life of some students (those who dared to write anything else than the mandatory assignements) and in no time the blog had a good starting point for someone looking for an un-official view of life on the hillock at Bhadbhada road. It started attracting decent web-traffick and the content on the blog started to find a place in faculties' discusssion with students, in replies of new students( to questions like "how did you come to know about IIFM?) and in other virtual forums/places.

By 2006, the blog started getting contributions from some alumni, new members of IIFM family and the posts started to come.. mostly in trickles with sudden spurts triggered by enthusiasm of members of new batches. It served as a platform for information sharing and experience sharing, as a PR tool, as a complaint board... and has chronicalized journey of IIFM and IIFMights to some extent since June 2004. Now in 2009, the blog is doing fine even though it craves for some regular contributors, it is serving its purpose. It is pinning its hope on new members (Welcome PFM 2009-2011) and yet again requests the old members (it knows that all of you have your own blogs..but still this blog deserves some attentions from you..) to come out and share the tidbits from life after IIFM, your work life ...........

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My Seasons in the Sun

2009-06-02T09:43:00.000+05:30

Alumni? Well aren't they just old college pass outs?? Why so much fuss about Alumni and Alumni Meets everyone in class thought... Ask me the same question today and I can swear on anyone they are more like parents and most of the times even more!! Internship time during an MBA course is all about organizational experience!! Work dynamics!! Group dynamics and pressure management!! All in a real time scenario!! I do agree but there are more facets to any work experience. Adjustment is the biggest factor to any kind of situation!! An internship is a clear check for everyone on how well they are prepared for work...Maybe even at weird hours stark conditions... Messy bosses!! Bad network and erratic internet.
Enough of introductions... I’ll move onto something more personal now!!
My choice of internship was in the environment sector in Bombay!! The hub of every kind of activity in this country! One can never leave Bombay out of anything.. Honestly I was dying to work here because I have stayed across India all these years for study and work and research and lived all of them explicitly.. Mumbai remained and here it was a golden opportunity!!
Can I survive Bombay? Can I learn from the relentless passion in the people to earn a living? Can I keep up with the pace Mumbaikars have to offer to me every morning? Can I count each second I gain/lose if I miss/catch a bus/train/rick... This is Bombay people!! Where people account for every nano-second in their lives and devise ways to optimize it!! I would still say I was lucky!! The moment I landed up in Dadar junction this quest of the unknown began. Iwas hesitant, submissive, and even a little jittery about these two months, whether it would be an ordeal or a pleasant surprise. And it turned out to be the latter. And in what splendid way really. Right from switching 2 trains from day 1 to land up at Chembur and finally realizing my mentors house was closer to Kurla station till date when I’ve mastered the art of racing for the fast locals and getting off them at lightning speed in this city has been really a revelation!!
My directions in IIFM leaned towards the ENV sector and I, by nature, am a hard core business oriented person. I started looking for avenues to connect these two. I saw CDM as an option, I had read about it a lot for my GD/PIs and now it was time to cash in. Read some more. Interacted with some environment sector seniors. Got more stuff in my data bank. Had some wonderful teachers teaching basics and conversations with them helped my understanding... Internet was extensively used. But what next I thought. Then comes internship time. Best time to feel the heat. Get into this sector. Work and find out for myself if I wanna take the final plunge. And so I ended up at a renowned consultancy in this city. My deliverable a project design document. The essence of the entire CDM process, it all begins with this doc all told me!!!
I had another friend who was out to check out/test the waters of CDM and didn't we have a ball!!
Will not discuss work, that will be done at a more official place that is the final PDD and report I make.. If I finally end up making onw... Guess i have to :) till now I’m not through with either... but this poar was meant to tell everyonw about the entire experience of my 2 months!!
Recounting my 1st day at work I remember Kallol Sir blatantly telling me… “Dude don’t faint looking at the crowd at Borivali station waiting for the 8:17 Slow!! My ticket was done and I was ready to hurl myself into the train… but I was warned... 1st day mate see, learn and then ape from tomorrow... watch us take the COMMANDO jump... from tomorrow u can do the practical...”
I wondered God if there are so many people only here how do people manage!! And there are such umpteen stations from where people fling themselves inside a coach to get an inch of footspace so that they can earn their daily bread. As predicted I was shoved around like a pack of shelved cards n once i got in I could barely set foot. I learnt it was 1st class, no this is no class divide.. Just an illusion and of course cushioned seats. I have seen people with 3 blackberries rubbing shoulders with someone like me. A mere intern. I was amazed at the way the city functions. There is nothing called as a dia to this city. It exists in straight lines and that is why it is so important to know your east and west here. A slight miscalculation in direction can cost you money and more importantly time. Beat a Mumbaikar in time management and i will bow to you. As I mentioned every second is set for an activity. Remember xulfi's song... mumbai jaha sab apni zindagi slow track se fast track karne me bitate hain!! True but thats the essence!! The urge, to keep going out there everyday fighting all odds!!! the tremendous tenacity of people here and I am not speaking this with regard to just one community or class... but my observation is about the inherent passion to not waste time and keep at it every day!! I think IIFM made me lazy i was taken aback and was in full admiration to this quality of Mumbai!!
The city never sleeps... never.. I’ve stayed in India in all metros, semi metros, there is no comparison to Mumbai.. You will find transport always!! At least in most of the places!! And there is no fleecing... so well said in the movie 99... Delhi taxis/autos have no meter!! Mumbai everything is regulated... I was amazed at the fact that everywhere everything happens in a proper queue!! Yes there is an occasional stir... but generally most of the things are mechanized!! This is a super safe city for women!! Beat that!!
As days flew by I started becoming IIFM sick. With similar cries from friends from all over internship locations I felt a deep craving to go back… But the thought of going back from Bombay didn’t feel nice... Was staying with a bunch of alumni who I think are absolute rockers!! I've never been pampered so much ever in my life i guess. Every need of mine/ours was taken care of, suggestions and advice always forthcoming.... this made our stay an amazing bliss!!! Met more of the IIFM brotherhood during our trips to various places... and also the Alumni Meet... One could never the warmth with which we were greeted and owned. Truly IIFM subconsciously binds us amazingly!!! Somehow one can never forget the feelings and the deep attachment towards the college... We felt these vibes... Be it 96 pass outs 02 pass outs or the most recent ones, this strong connection will never let us down I am so sure!!! During moments like this one feels what an amazing place we all have gathered to make the most of our two important years!!

With each passing day as i saw more of Mumbai i started feeling the resilience inside me!! True I haven been exposed to the darker shades but then every coin has two sides you choose which side you wanna call and hope that life throws that side of the coin to you!! Kaushik (my fellow intern) and i decided to have our own list of to-do things before we fled this city..
Getting on a double decker!!
Eating bhelpuri at chowpati
Visiting Siddhivinayak and Haji Ali
Buying stuff from 2nd hand market.. at mind boggling rates (courtesy Kallol sir)
Getting hold of Shantaram at Rs 100 reprint version
Visiting BandStand ... :D
EsselWorld.. 
..
..
..
Understanding if I can end up doing CDM consultancy.. :)
Some done; some unfinished but I promise I will come back to complete all this... I need my second chance!! I will take it!!
I started with the word Alumni… Some of you might think I lost out on the origin of my blog... no I didn’t I was busy knitting my thoughts on Bombay and without these alumni I would not have been able to write this!!! They were great mentors, great guides, great hosts, and great seniors but above all they were great friends!! Thank u pfm08 house!! Thank you Kallol Sir, Atul Sir, Prashant Sir, Gitesh Sir, Soumik Sir and all the rest who made these two months of mine an amazing experience in Mumbai!!!

------------
Indranil Roy (PFM 08-10)

Missing those lofty gates....

2009-04-23T14:36:00.007+05:30

Right now, the batch of PFM 2010 is on their internship at every nook & corner of India. Right from Shimla to Madurai, in OWSA to Satpura Tiger Reserve, one can find them everywhere, working in scorching heat of this summer of Jaipur to enjoying the pristine beauty of Nainital. All hell bent on proving the mettle inside them...

Sitting in the office, I wonder how IIFM must be looking now. With the seniors gone & 2010 batch not present in the campus now, does IIFM may be having the same charm& exuberance which it exudes whenever you enter the magnificent gates of IIFM? Is it the students over there which gives energy to IIFM or is it the other way around? Does the peace in IIFM now giving out a feeling of serene calmness or of a mother waiting for her child? Well, this question is difficult to answer. But one thing can be said for sure, that whatever be the answer to this question, we IIFMIGHTs miss IIFM without having even words to express how much. And it’s the IIFM which gives identity to us & not vice versa.

All those midnight walks.... with the harmless banter & teasing with friends daily (barring few days when we had to submit some lengthy assignments next day), trying to go to Andheri Gali & shouting even with the sound of a leaf, the long rows of Roses in front of Administrative block, near hostel & mess, the sacred Canteen which fills the appetite of many during 10 minutes' break(because they wake up at 8:25 for the class of 8:30); rushing towards the canteen for the last cup of tea of the day at around 11:45 pm(since, it closes at 12), eating Maggi whenever you don’t find food in the mess matching to your palate, IP: the lifeline (source for instant spread of news), looking at life- size India Gate whenever one goes to mess, Indyarocks : to inform everybody about some urgent news, celebrating birthday outside the hostel with the birthday guy getting good amount of bumps & swearing not to eat cake for a couple of months, waiting for the last class to get over(since it is from 2-3 & after the lunch break), trying to complete the assignment before 5 0’ clock(manage to do so at 4:55 pm), eagerly waiting for Friday so that you can completely unleash the energy stored in you out on Saturday & Sunday, Group study in Computer Centre during Exams, trying to get as many chance to play carom, the baddy court, football ground, the tennis court, the volleyball Court , the sacrosanct ROOM NO. 119......

There are so many aspects of living in IIFM that one can’t capture it in words..... Here, when I am outside those holy gates, I am missing the safeness of it...I am missing my friends without whom life is incomplete at IIFM, I am missing rushing to the mess for breakfast...I am missing those long Dining tables where a single meal used to extend to 30-45 minutes, where life used to begin with looking ahead for new happenings....

..... Swati Agrawal.. PFM'10

Price? No. Value? Who cares...!!!

2009-01-08T14:33:00.001+05:30

I am an inherently lazy person. But today I finally bring myself to write something which has been bothering me all along in IIFM, right from the time I came here: all of us here are barking dogs who never bite!

We will talk of sustainable development and watershed management, but care tuppence about the water overflowing and draining away from the hostel tank twice a day every day, for more than half an hour each time. Or for that matter, leaving taps open and imagining sweet dreams while the water flows.

We will talk of equitable distribution but lazily refuse to take only ‘enough’ food in our plates and later unabashedly empty the ‘small’ leftovers in the mess bins.

We will talk of energy efficiency and conservation and even take up electives in Energy Management, but flagrantly refuse to follow the basic tenets of switching off lights, fans and other equipments when not in the room.

Why? Because we either don’t pay for these services, or pay paltry sums – that too without realizing it. We don’t pay for the water at all, and even for the electricity, we pay indirectly, if at all, in the form of Hostel Fees (which have only from the academic year 2009-11 been increased to Rs. 13000 for the two years combined). That translates to around Rs. 620 p.m. for the entire hostel fees (not merely electricity) for the new batch which would come to IIFM next year. Obviously, we pay much smaller amounts – I don’t have the admission brochure of our batch to validate the same.

So it is perfectly fine for me as a student of IIFM to use as much energy and resources as I want, or as I want to ignore, and still get away with it without me getting affected by it – monetarily or physically. And the wastage continues...

We learn in Strategic Management that top management buy-in of a concept is important for it to trickle-down across the organization system. Is that what is ailing us here? Is the lack of a monitoring mechanism by the Institute key to us being such irresponsible consumers of public goods? Well, we do see the Institute leading us in many aspects – professors leaving lights, fans and air-conditioners on in full swing in their rooms whilst they are out for long stretches of time; CFLs of much higher lumens replacing the old tubes and bulbs in classrooms in the ratio of 2:1 – leading to at least double the electricity consumption than what is required; cultural annotations of the Sunset Point being ignored while developing faculty residences on-campus; etc. The Institute has public money to spend, budgets to meet, and unnecessary opulence flows...

I believe similar things happen in the NGO sector. Though I have never worked in one, I have heard from several quarters (reliable ones, like the erstwhile State Co-ordinator of The Hunger Project) that NGOs spend money like anything on ‘field researchers’ whenever development targets by funding agencies are to be met, in order to ensure continuous supply of funds.

But here I go too far. From the individual, I have come to a system. I guess that’s too much to ask for – dynamic refurbishment of an entire system of functioning.

But the question remains – do I have the right to continue my wastrel ways of living at the cost of deprivation to another person living outside my field of vision? Well, the non-user value concept of environmental economics seems not to have caught up yet with us. So let’s just... waste on...!

----Siddharth Iyer PFM 09

Change for good ?

2008-11-22T22:09:00.003+05:30

A few years back in search of an institution which can add some value to my CV, I ended up at the gates of IIFM. I was there for my GD/PI. I was about to leave the auto at the gate itself, but the auto-driver told me the institute is about one km up on the hilltop and he was right as I could not see anything from the gate apart from trees in different stage of their lifecycle and a big clump of bamboos (a few months later I realized that these bamboos have their own family 'poaceae' and subfamily 'Bambusoideae'.. etc..etc.. thanks to IIFM course-curriculum).
The auto-ride from IIFM gate to IIFM main-building confirmed one thing that this place is worth spending two years. I had already started thinking of my life at hilltop. A few hours later, post my GD/PI (which ensured that if the selection committee had nothing against my face and my 'bihari' accented English, I was almost in.) I saw some faces oozing familiarity to the surrounding and moving towards bushes adjacent to old hostel buildings. I followed them a bit hesitantly and reached a place which gave mesmerizing view to a water body, Bhopal city and the sun set. I was at 'Sunset Point'. To hell with placement figures and apprehension of joining a sectoral b-school, this is the place to spend two years.
Seven-eight months later, sunset point was part of our life. The rocks there carry ancient paintings and have been part of memories of many lifelong partnerships. Not to mention, the area surrounding sunset point being a good habitat for peacocks and birds.
Now, about a couple of weeks ago, a mail landed in my mail box conveying the sad news. The new expansion plan of IIFM is going to result in constructions around 'sunset point' . They are going to build faculty houses in that area; there is going to be sunset for sunset point. There is nothing much I can do here apart from making a sincere request to concerned decision-makers to think about the proposed construction plan. IIFM campus is big enough to accommodate houses for each and every member of IIFM family, the sun set point can be left alone.
But, I must confess I do not have the full picture. There are not many ways that we can get unless decision makers start using some of the tools IIFM advocates and champions. Stakeholder Analysis, Participatory Decision Making, EIA... these words are probably used most on this Bhopal hilltop than anywhere else.

Reminiscence Ruminations

2008-11-20T23:17:00.000+05:30

Another Alumni Meet has passed. This time, it was the M.P. Chapter. We had 22 confirmations. Twelve came.

Well, I am very happy with the Meet this time (of course, learnings are always there!). For one, the event was refreshingly organized – and all efforts of the Alumni Committee, and of Dhaval, were there for everyone to see. Second, there was a much better co-ordination between the Clubs and their events. Third, volume-wise, many more turned up – both, from the alumni and the students’ side. Of course, volumes in these cases are always something to crib about, but I’m not going to do that – I’m just too happy. Fourth, and most important, I perceived the alumni to be happy. I really hope the word spreads and we have much better numbers next time.

You know, we at IIFM tend to take things for granted… either our future or our relationships. I did. IIFM has made me go through the most tumultuous relationships in my life. I have faltered time and again. But hope lingers. Rather, it keeps popping up every now and then and makes me cry. Like the time last week when my dearest friends put up a surprise birthday party for me by the bridge on the moat. It gives me hope – that I’m loved, and will be loved, wherever I go after IIFM. It gives me strength I’ll draw on all my life. And I’m sure every alumnus feels this way. But something still stops us from coming back.

Is it because the people made the place worth living and not the Institute? Maybe. But hey! People are still there… Give us a chance to know you… Give us a chance to come out of our shells…

-----

Siddharth Iyer PFM 09

Alumni Meet in Bhopal, 9th November

2008-11-11T11:34:00.003+05:30

Sunday, the 9th saw few IIFM Alumni back to their Campus. Current batches planned events etc and executed them well. I was not the one going back to campus after years, it is just months for me but thanks to the name of event there were more people around. So we introduced ourselves, shared a moment from our time in the campus, played ad-mad, heard songs, did some clay artwork, ate lunch, talked to director and students, drank tea, some of us saw movie while we spirited.
Alumni Committee - I loved the momento!
Please share the photographs asap.

Your Network,Your net worth.

2008-10-09T00:42:00.002+05:30

Sometime back I was discussing recruitment processes with my friends/colleagues and some professors; the discussion started getting focused on the key skill sets/attributes/features playing critical role in selection. Though we are quite aware of most of the skill sets and attributes affecting selection decision, an interesting attribute was the network a candidate has access to. Yes, your network constitutes a significant part of your net worth.
A recruiters (especially those recruiting for managerial posts and not for skill specific jobs like programmers or firefighters) primarily assess the total value a candidate brings to the table and unlike one's individual skill sets, knowledge and training, whose effectiveness is tested only after certain amount of time, network's effectiveness is pre-established and known. It brings immediate value in term of providing an indirect connection for the recruiting organization to a network, which can be exploited in many ways. I know many people who rely hugely on their professional network / college network for effective execution of their professional assignments. Ask anyone working in development sector, they will vouch for it. And here by network I am not referring to only college/ alumni network, it can be your family network (being relative of a minister/cabinet secretary!!) or social network or professional network in terms of contacts and references you carry with yourself from your past organizations/assignments.
The other significant advantage of assessing this attribute is that one can predict future performance to some extent based upon the performance of network members. It gives a sense of your potential. It builds one's credibility.The differential pay packages offered to candidate with same qualification from different institutes is reflection of this value and risk assessment only.
And sometime the network becomes more important than the candidate. After all, the potential of a wire depends on the power source it is connected to. :)
( There are some 'head fakes' here.. You can surely gain some extra points if you know how to use your networks.. .. oh .. there are more than a couple of 'head fakes' here.. Sorry I just finished The Last Lecture by Randy Paush .. and I liked the use of 'head fakes' ...)

itinerant weekend... itinerant thoughts...

2008-09-22T15:44:00.000+05:30

I’m just back from Indore, where I went without a tangible purpose, over the weekend. I’d had enough of student life. I wanted the life of a wanderer. I wanted time to introspect... and emerge anew. Of course, I was only partly a wanderer – I had money, you see! Still, I did spend a lot of time with myself.

So when I was finally free from Rohit (O yeah, coincidentally, he too visited Indore these days – and I strictly asked him to leave me alone!) and the yummy poha-jalebi he dished out on Saturday morning, I found myself in a decent hotel room, all to myself. And for the first time in a long time, I felt good about this. An afternoon outing saw me roaming around in search of a stock of juices on which I intended to sustain the two days. Was a time well spent – observing people and their small talk, walking along slowly. Be it this time of lazy sunshine, or the evening maze of tangled weekend urgency, I noticed one similarity – people in general tend to do their own thing oblivious of what circumstances around. What with the school-boy flirting with his classmate on the streets, suit-clad honchos stopping their sedans in Lalbag for a pee, locals haggling with handicrafts-people from all over India for 5 rupees, hoteliers suspicious of a boy renting a room all alone... India is still the same in spirit. In many ways, it bodes well for a community searching for life amidst all the temptations of the world. In other ways, could it bode ill for the future generations? Do we have the capacity of assimilating the West and the East in a natural confluence of benefits, leaving behind the limitations?

Reading The Siege of Mecca by Yaroslav Trofimov in this period has opened up a world in front of me which I knew existed. We have to stop blaming Islam for each and every damnation on earth. What’s wrong with Islam? Absolutely nothing. With some of its followers – maybe yes. Some have the wrong notion that ‘everyone needs to follow my religion, in my way’. But then, that’s the virus festering in all major religions all over the world. Hinduism suffers from it, Christianity does too. Other religions, I don’t know – I haven’t been exposed to them enough. It’s only when the sense of individuality gets superseded by group behaviour norms that you see radical fundamentalism of the nature largely attributed to Islam. I’m sure the way things are going – Christianity oppositions in Orissa, misguided Hindu stronghold in Gujarat, to cite a few – these two religious behemoths are soon going to join the ‘radicalism’ bandwagon. And we have no one else to blame but ourselves. Though we live superfluously together, our mental disconnect with each other widens by the day. We are unwilling to change.

These are random thoughts completely incomplete with respect to my entire sojourn in Indore, but they form some bases of my life now. Yesterday, incidentally, was International Peace Day. And it was a watershed day for me. I made peace with myself, drew a roadmap for my future pace in life, and also reinstated my conviction: I will change. If the world thinks it worthwhile, I will be an example.

Development, Environment and Forestry? – they will automatically fall in place.

--- Siddharth Iyer, PFM 09

The Journey

2008-07-07T13:27:00.002+05:30

Ujjawal has realized now that he is in love. I have always been in love – but the euphoria is over. I had come to IIFM with a completely different mindset – one teetering more on dreams than what it actually offers. Not that the dreams have shattered – they still form a core of my everyday life, but are dormant. I now know where exactly IIFM can take me… if I only want it… if I only work for it – the destination is ahead, but what about the journey?

This one year has taught me a hell lot of things (keeping awake till late, for instance – I used to call it a day by 10 p.m.!). But the best part of this has been that I have not been taught – I have learnt. And to me, it is a very significant difference. Always the one to question things not understood by me, I have worn my audacity on my sleeves – to not-so-rosy effects. Like the day I was chosen Principal of my school for Teachers' Day, and I went to school wearing a trendy sleeveless t-shirt just because I was tired of all the 'official' stuff (already!), and the teachers were so appalled, they turned dumb with shock – they just stared at me, and didn't say a word.

IIFM has always been close to my heart – and I wish to experience each and every part of it personally. I make night visits to places I find interesting. Every night, I want to sleep in a different place, just to make it a part of me. But again, 'society' stops me – literally. And I am dragged back to the mundane. Why do I allow this? Where are the dreams which drove me? Am I digressing, or am I mainstreaming?

Moot questions all… and for now, I am just content – content doing my own thing, my own way, remaining inconspicuous to the world at large. Not for me the attention… what draws me near is the strange…

--Siddharth Iyer (PFM '09)

I am in love..

2008-07-04T22:04:00.000+05:30

I am in love.....
I am in love.....
I am in love.....
Yes this is true and now I will have to live the rest of my life with the fact that I am in love and I could not do anything about it, because I know that however hard I might try, I can’t have it forever.
But just one year... too bad!
Also, late realization is another sin that I have committed. Had I realized it earlier, I would have made the best use of the time, since we have been together for past one year. How true it is that you come to know something’s importance when you don’t have it. Only I can understand how desperate I was, to be united with my love when I was away on my internship. Now no prizes for guessing who I am in love with... so public, junta, friends and admirers, and those of you who are waiting with bated breath (probability of which is .00001), it is my own heaven IIFM!
Back from the summer internship, after two long months, I am loving it even more. What is more fascinating is the opportunity to “baaton gyan” to the new batch of PFM 2010 – the new batch is great and seems to have immense potential, the sooner they realize, the better it would be for them (look who is saying this!).
The best part of the orientation sessions (or the honeymoon as we call it here) this year was the guest lectures. Many eminent personalities were called to deliver different perspectives and the sector specific opportunities and the challenges that we will face once in the field. It was great to interact with Prabhat Upadhyaya, Sachin Badkas and Shreyamsa Bairiganjan – our own IIFMights who took pains and came down to the campus to share their experiences and discussed various job opportunities in different sectors, with us and the new batch.
Now coming back to my love, it was all glittering and shimmering, with new additions like a sports complex, lawn tennis court and a much needed canteen. Library became air conditioned, so now I don’t have any excuse not to spare time for some books and journals.
Life is business as usual for me but full of CERs and VERs for our Envi’s (batch mates who eat carbon, drink carbon and sleep carbon); but I am not bothered – at least for the time being – I am with my love, and obviously I am loving it!

-- Ujjawal (PFM 07-09)

Adieu IIFM…

2008-03-01T18:56:00.001+05:30

This is the Last post from IIFM. So much I have said about my Life at IIFM that I do not have any words to say anything new. That’s why this post is dedicated my Batch...The Great PFM 2008...
Abhishek: "One Man Show"
Email Id: abhishek.iifm@gmail.com
Abhinav: "Deep and Dependent"
Email Id:abhinaviifm@gmail.com
Amit: He stresses too much on "M"
Email Id: amit.mandale@gmail.com
Anurag: "Matrix Trilogy"
Email Id: anunis@gmail.com
Arjun: "....in between Optimism n Pessimism "
Email Id: arya.arjun@gmail.com
Atul : "Life is Beautiful"
Email Id: atul84atul@gmail.com
Gitesh: "Feel Good"
Email Id: giteshg@gmail.com
Garima: "Searching Books in which She will be able to find something about Her"
Email Id: garimabajaj@gmail.com
Jitendra: "Right Hand of God"
Email Id: jitendra.upadhyay@gmail.com
Kallol: "All-rounder"
Email Id: kallolkumarmandal@gmail.com
Kalpana: A Tigress in a bowl
Email Id: kalpanapfm08@gmail.com
Kanika: Here's my question...
Email Id: kanika07@gmail.com
Kshitiz: "To Be Or Not To Be"
Email Id: ksanadhaya08@gmail.com
Vaibhav : "On the Rocks"
Email Id: vaibhaviifm@gmail.com
Lalit: "To love at all is to be a vulnerable Lover"
Email Id: lalitsori6@gmail.com
Manish: The Devil God
Email Id: findmanish0@gmail.com
Neha: "Illusion of Life"
Parul: "Chocolaty Life "
Email Id: parul1411@gmail.com
Pranita: "Emotional Recycle Bin"
Email Id: pranita.bhagat@gmail.com
Prashant: "if u cant convince people...confuse them"
Email Id: luvprasha@gmail.com
Priyanshika: "I am what I am"
Email Id: priyanshika@gmail.com
Rahul B. : "My History Can Beat Up Your Politics "
Email Id: rahul.bharadwaj.18.02.1983@gmail.com
Rahul K.: "Living My Dream"
Email Id: @gmail.com
Ranesh: How's That....?
Email Id: rahul259@gmail.com
Ravi: "Honest Reflection "
Email Id: ravipan4u@gmail.com
Sameer: "Success lies in dream....so go and sleep"
Email Id: samsays19@gmail.com
Shakshi : An Individualist trying hard to change life
Email Id:groversakshi@gmail.com
Shail: He says "I can kill anyone for the Nobel Peace Prize"
Email Id: shail.iifm@gmail.com
Shweta : Its not about "Age", its about "Mileage" :D
Email Id: shweta.bhagwat@gmail.com
Shreshtha: "I think I am the Best....and...... I believe that I will be "The Best" One Day"
Email Id: shreshtha.bhardwaj@gmail.com
Siddharth: "Marketing with Style n Brands"
Email Id: sids617ster@gmail.com
Sonal: "A Protected Candle Light and A Beautiful Mind "
Email Id: sonalpfm08@gmail.com
Me : :)
Email id: callmesoumik@gmail.com
Srey: The Lost Soul ; Am I what I am ?
Email Id: sreyamsa@gmail.com
Sunil: "Cool Tunes of Life and Nature"
Email Id: rajagopal.sunil@gmail.com
Sudeep: "Our first and last love is....Self-Love"
Email Id: sudeep.kodialbail@gmail.com
Varun: Life is short, Make the most of it!!
Email Id: drvarunbangia@gmail.com

Director's Prize fo The Best OT

2008-02-13T02:07:00.002+05:30

Every Year, during Kalpataru (IIFM's Annual Fest), IIFM awards Director's Prize for the Best Organizational Training work . Students are judged on the basis of Host Organization’s recommendation, IIFM faculty's evaulation and vote of batch mates.
This year, I along with Ravi got the award for the training we did in Development Credit Bank Ltd, Mumbai. The project was on Urban Microfinance.
We got the award for Second Organizational Training where as Dr. Varun Bangia got the award for First Organization Training work which he did at Dabur Pharma Ltd. (up to PFM 06-08 IIFM had 2 Organizational Trainings, PFM 2009 onward IIFM is having One Organizational Training i.e. Summer Internship).
Life at IIFM once again proved to be full of surprises and once again echoed the expression “These are the Best Days of My Life“.
I thank everybody specially my batch mates who voted for me (and also to those who did not), dearest alumni, faculty and most importantly Kartik Sir, Deepika Mam, Vidya Sir and Sandeep Sir of DCB.

[Post Contributed by Soumik Ghanta, PFM 08 batch]

What makes an entrepreneur?

2008-02-10T20:03:00.001+05:30

What are the traits and factors which decide whether somebody is going to be an entrepreneur or not? Are there some factors/traits which are more important than other for being a successful entrepreneur?

A research paper by a team of researchers from The World Bank, CEPR and CEFIR, provides good insight on above question on the basis of data collected on 400 random Brazilian Entrepreneurs.

Some interesting findings from the paper:

Brazilian entrepreneurs are coming more from rural areas than urban areas and they are more likely to be married and less likely to be overweight. They are taller by one cm (approx) than non entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs were more patient than non-entrepreneurs and they expect lower returns on their investment than non-entrepreneurs (18% against 24% expected by non entrepreneurs).
Entrepreneurs put more value on children's education than non-entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurs show more trust than failed entrepreneurs do.
Exploring the sociological characteristics of entrepreneurs, the paper shows that entrepreneurs are more likely to come from a family of senior managers, officials than workers. They also have more relatives and friends running their own business compared to non-entrepreneurs have. Though the social network has some role in deciding whether one is going to be an entrepreneur, but does not affect whether one is going to be successful entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs are also more likely to come from a large family.
Mother's education seems to have some impact on entrepreneur's success. The mothers of failed entrepreneurs were less highly educated than the mother of entrepreneurs.

I do not know to what extent we can generalize the findings of this report, but surely it makes an interesting read. :)

GD/PI Shortlist for PFM 08-10 batch is out

2008-02-06T15:12:00.001+05:30

The list of candidates shortlisted for Group Discussion and Personal Interview for PFM 08-10 batch is available on IIFM website.

Click here to see the list.

You can also get some insight about the admission process and the program from the discussion on Pagalguy Forum. Click here to visit the forum.

Technorati Tags: IIFM Bhopal, IIFM, PFM, Forest Management, Admission

The 'Imapatient Optimist' calls for'Creative Capitalism'

2008-01-25T11:02:00.001+05:30

Mr. Bill Gates has already divulged his plans to move from 'active role at' Microsoft to 'full time role at' Bill Gates and Millinda Gates

Foundation, the world's biggest philanthropic foundation. The man who changed the way people work and think, is now gearing up for some 'noble' cause. The self declared 'impatient optimist' commented ""In the coming decades we will have astonishing new abilities to diagnose illness, heal disease, educate the world's children, create opportunities for the poor and harness the world's brightest minds to solve our most difficult problems.".

IIFM Placement 2008

2008-01-13T00:51:00.001+05:30

I cannot believe myself that I am writing this post. I am going to write about our Placements (PGDFM 2008). Last time when I wrote about our seniors’ placements, it was more of Information Sharing. Now I have realized the process and the ecstasy, smile, pain, desperation, tears attached with the process. Yes, Placement Process itself is great learning experience. Though I was out of the process (because of PPO from OT-II organization) still I felt the heat and now most happy like all other batch mates.
Placement 2008 is over and like the previous years, we achieved 100% placement in no time. PGDFM 2008 rocks!! We started where our seniors had left and with great satisfaction. Our batch’s placement is more precedent in a sense that almost everybody got the job in the sector they wanted. Be it Microfinance, be it Corporate or Environment, every one has gone to his or her desired field. IIFM is best in this aspect that it offers equal space to everybody and our batch has been able to fit itself in the desired space.
The placement process was over in two days as almost the whole batch was placed in those two days. Though one org. delayed the declaration of result but surely when it confirmed the celebration got intensified and more “spirited”.
Microfinance is most buzzing word and being a specialized institution, IIFM has been able to maintain this niche area that has been built up over the years. This year almost 16 people are directly dealing with Microfinance. Fourteen students in SKS Microfinance and two students in Development Credit Bank Ltd. Package for SKS is Seven Lac while it is Six Lac for DCBL. On corporate arena, one is joining ICICI Bank while five are joining HDFC Bank. FINO, the technology provider for financial institutions, selected one.
Thanks to our seniors, Marketing Research Organization like International Market Research Bureau (IMRB) came down to campus and recruited four students with package of 5.6 Lac. Apart from DCBL, the organizations who made inroad this time to offer diversification in placements are Indian Oil Corporation, IMS Learning Resource, Emergent Venture India (EVI) and Cantor C02e India. IOCL took two for its Biofuel operations. IMS and EVI each selected two. Consultancy firm Cantor C02e India has recruited one for Carbon Trading related operation. Another research institute, IFMR (Centre for Development Finance) selected one. The only oversea placement was offered by Global Timber Trading Org. Olam International with package of about 25 lakh and in the forestry sector the only Job was offered by Harihar Polyfibre (Part of Aditya Birla Group).
Prof. Biswas as Placement Chairperson has done amazing work for our placement and a large part of placement success can be attributed to his efforts. Kudos to the Placement Committee, especially Abhinav (placement Cordi) and Prashant (OT Cordi) for their hard work. Guys, we are thankful to you and you both deserve treat from each of us. Now its party time, so getting ready for the blast!!!!!
[The figures are approximate and exact figure will come on Official site of IIFM- www.iifm.ac.in]

In the forest of night

2007-12-17T00:04:00.001+05:30

"In the Forest of Night" just stumbled upon this blog somehow in the blogosphere.. okey not somehow .. but out of my knack for finding IIFM related blogs on web. So here is a blog not that regularly updated but written passionately about 'Forest'.. written by an IIFMight.

IIFMight, who is "happy in his work, happy enough in the knowledge of his friends moving on to much better paying jobs, yet expressing their wonder at his work and how meaningful it is, he is also happy enough to somehow fob off the jibes of those who attempt to show him at his lowly place as compared to others of his qualification and background."

A glimpse of what is there..

"Renaissance for nothing less would do to save the ecosystems people that we used to be – from the impending doom looming large over us.
Ecology shall be soon ingrained in the heart of the neighbourhood friendly person. Ecology would no longer remain a subject taught at premier institutes and researched upon to gain innumerable doctorates, nor would it relegated to a handful of professionals who find it difficult to disperse the idea of a sustainable ecology to the so called teeming millions. Ecology would be instead the basic understanding through which we understand and appreciate processes of the ecosystem we live in."

And before that I had stumbled acroos one more blog, that too, by an alumnus and all I can say that was somewhat not the kind of blog I would like to see as an IIFMight. Though the blog was self defeating and the post can describe more about the author than the things he seemed to describe.

The Best Days of my life

2007-12-14T15:02:00.000+05:30

OT Presentation is about to over. The number of Days in IIFM (Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal) now can be counted on fingers. Two Years. It is like a roller coaster ride. Staying away from West Bengal, experience of meeting up with some Good and Bad People, gaining 3 - 4 Kilos of weight, becoming Smart [ According to one of my Batchmates’( of PFM 08 Batch) statement], learning speaking “Hindi” and studying as well if can get some time from other activities... : Life at IIFM can be described in one phrase - ” Best Days of My Life”.

After getting the PPO from the OT -II Organization (Development Credit Bank, Mumbai) with competitive package and offering of Home State, Life has become very easy. That day Ranesh (One of Batchmates) was asking about how I am felling now. What to say : No tension of Placement Process, So want to enjoy remaining days to the fullest, Want to click everything in campus, Want to Hang out in the city specially in the Night.
Because I know these days will not return ever.
What you say?

-----------------------
by Soumik Ghanta (PFM08)

Steve Jobs Speech at Stanford

2007-12-06T22:09:00.000+05:30

Sreyamsa Bairiganjan

2007-10-27T12:15:00.001+05:30

My quest for some regular contributors for this blog has yielded some result :) and now we have Sreyamsa Bairiganjan on board (No buddy you are not getting any money. Your are FoB. Free on Board ).

Sreyamsa is from PFM (06-08) batch and dreams to be an eco-preneur who will build Art Villages and make big in area of eco-tourism (Sadly, some people could not see this as a big opportunity and failed to appreciate his business model properly and he was shown the door in third round in a popular channels budding entrepreneur competition. Do not worry dear, most people fail to understand 'the double bottom line'..)

He is also Student Coordinator for Alumni Affairs and the guy to be blamed or credited for Alumni Meet and for the new Alumni website.

OIS (Orkut Intelligence Serivce) informs that he is quite good at building a fan following wherever he goes and loves Eagles (his songs only), Bryan Adams, Kishor Kumar and Hemant Kumar.

The Monks who lived in Mumbai

2007-10-26T12:01:00.000+05:30

One month into our respective OTs and once again that feeling .... "Ek mahine kya kiya ....kahan gaya yeh mahina " :)

Again a hustle to gear up and start writing our reports before its too late.

Again the same question by one and all over the phone/chats/scraps..."Kitna hua? Report start kiya kya ?? "

Live here from Mumbai :)

Mumbai is beautiful....The people here are very nice...everybody gives you a patient listening on anything you have to say (whether the matter being discussed is of their interest or not doesn't really matter to them)

The huge red buses with people sticking out at all odd angles remind you of the fevicol ad.... initially hesitant i travelled in an auto for two days but their jet age meters sent me scurrying to catch a bus(who cares about the angle i stick out at now) A few bones crushed but i saved Rs 70 per day ;)

Twice i forgot the advice meted out to me by my someone special ;) ... Forgot to stand near the bus door close to my stop..... RESULT: I got down 2 stops later and took an auto back to my office :)

Enough of Buses,Now i decided that it was time to go for the locals :)

Locals are either fast or slow...slow meaning stopping at every damn station out there and fast meaning not stopping at your desired destination at all :D

There is an unwritten rule for the Mumbai local trains : You dont get in or get out of the locals..... all you have to do is place yourself strategically in front of the train door and the crowd will push you in or throw you out. Similar to the escalators that we see in malls :) in a bit cruder way i guess.

If you end up carrying a newspaper in the local, then God save you. People jostle for better places within the overcrowded compartment to read a bit from your paper. It might sound okay but it is scary when u see 3-4 people pushing and jostling with others to get to you. And when they finally get to you...its a 220 watt toothy grin that they flash at you before getting busy with your newspaper....sometimes even throwing angry looks at you if the article is not upto their mark :)

And now :) A Ravi Special :)

One fine Sunday, the three of us( Ravi/Shoumik n me) managed to roam around most of Mumbai.
Lunch time and we ended up in a fine restaurant "New Yorkers" :)
On entering we were offered a puzzle paper and pencil to play with..... Pandey and me got busy solving it with Shoumik giving us revolting looks :) when we succeeded in solving a few puzzles and looked up to see who else had done it.
We found kids aged less than 10 busy with their puzzle papers while their parents ate on. The grown ups were offered menus and magazines.... I wonder how did we end up with the puzzle papers :) Our interest in the solving the rest of the puzzle paper went down distinctly after this revelation.

We ordered a sizzler..... and Ravi discovered why is a sizzler named so. The first scoop that he picked was that of the boiling hot chocolate sauce (It was looking great...can't blame the poor fellow) and put it in his mouth. He went blank after that and Shoumik laughing at Ravi picked up another scoop ...only to spill it on his own hand and start yelling :)

Went out and had a few soda's after that with Pandeyji ordering the most colourful soda's. Shoumik clicked snaps of all the funny coloured and funny tasting soda's that he picked naming his snap as the colours of India :)

Mumbai is great...busy place but the people really do care in here :) And i'm in love with the local trains and the buses and so is Ravi :)

Pandey n Shoumik have been great pals as usual...never saying no to me...and moving around the city has been delightful with both of them.
Ravi is genuinely funny and Shoumik is the great lazy thinker :) Amazing pals :)

Now to all our batchmates.....Have a great OT you all. Remember at the end of it we are all budding managers (and expert report writers according to some of our faculty).
so manage yourselves/ Write a great report/ Get a PPO....most importantly manage your money well and send some of it to the three of us in here at Mumbai :) We'll have another sizzler at "New Yorkers" and no puzzle solving this time :)

IIFMightes in Development Sector

2007-10-16T11:14:00.001+05:30

-Prashant Mishra (PFM 2002-04)

Completing 4 years of my sojourn in the development sector almost six years after passing through the lofty IIFM gate (the water tank) for the first time, I am reflecting about how the journey has been so far and what lies ahead for me… or rather, for us.
Always keen to work for the development sector since my graduation days, I joined the 13th Batch of IIFM in June 2000. Experiencing the course in the next two years made me sure that I was meant for the grassroots and so did both my OTs with grassroots organizations – SRIJAN and PRADAN. In the same spirit, I joined PRADAN in 2002 just 15 days after passing out from IIFM.
I worked with some of the poorest people of the country in the Vidisha Project of PRADAN, in a small place called Sironj. It was a real eye opener for me – I had no idea how hollow all claims of development, cried hoarse by the media, were. I witnessed the abject poverty resulting from a total failure of the development system – lack of basic amenities (health, education facilities, safe drinking water and proper roads existing only on paper) and rampant corruption in government agencies. My studies in Forest management were left behind somewhere; there was no forest to manage and in face of such grave deficiencies, even talking about rejuvenating the barren forest land felt criminal to me.
For a little more than two years that I worked there before leaving the job on the face of serious health complications, every day approached me with a new learning, not just as a development professional, but as a human being. One of the many things I was unable to understand was how a human being could exploit another in such a blatant manner! How someone could rob a penniless peasant for providing a copy of land records to him? How a health worker could refuse to visit his villages in spite of knowing about a disease killing infants like an unrestrained banshee? I was humbled as a human being; I felt ashamed witnessing it as a mute spectator. I did whatever I could within my capacity as a development worker and as a human being, but soon realized that the problem was not just the providers of amenities and the services. It was the community as well.
Centuries of colonial rule of the British has made the once self-reliant Indian villages and its community totally dependent on the system (read Government). Once all the resources of the village used to belong to the community. But in the beginning of the 19th century the market, and the resource-hungry British Government, took over all of them – land, water, forests, everything – and made the community totally dependent on it. Due to a conflict in interest between the government and the community, a series of famines followed, in which more that 85 million Indians lost their lives – not to disease, not to invasion, but to the greed of a colonial power. Unfortunately, no one even talks about these unfortunate compatriots who lost their lives to hunger then. Today, famines may have stopped, but the dependency has not. In Kankerkhedi, my first village in PRADAN, which has a population of 150, 14 people including infants lost their lives in just one year due to water borne diseases, yet despite having sufficient funds I could not get a hand pump dug there for a full year, as the community simply refused to deposit Rs.2500 as part of their contribution, mandatory in the Project in which I was working. They demanded to know the reason they had to pay when the government provided everything free (at least in principle, with all bribes and everything!).
Now, this particular aspect of the process of development makes it a little difficult. It is comparatively easy to create infrastructure – roads, houses, schools, wells, dams, etc. – but changing the attitude of a community is an arduous task. It is a slow process and all the more difficult when you are trying to do it in an environment which is otherwise exploiting and corrupt – the poor being taken for a ride by traders and big landlords, politicians, government servants and the mushrooming fly-by-night NGOs in connivance with each other.

However, in the recent past we have seen the attitudes of Indian communities being changed in many instances. The same market forces that once ravaged Indian villages in the form of the British East India Company are today changing the scenario of urban and rural India. A few decades back no one had heard of Maggie Noodles, Pepsi or Coca Cola. Today, colas have penetrated deep inside the Indian hinterland. At times you may not find safe drinking water in some remote corners of the country, but the mighty cola is omnipresent (never mind the CSE revelations)! Thus, we have witnessed that the community attitude can be changed in relatively less time, but it needs specific factors like an environment promoting change, desire and motivation to change, a foolproof strategy and huge resources to bring about such a change. This does happen, where market forces decide to provide a particular service or product in rural areas – not for charity but for profits.
The biggest and most visible example today is that of the mobile phone services. I remember, during my schooldays in the late eighties and early nineties there used to be a long waiting list for getting a phone connection. One had to either approach a neta or pay bribes to get a phone connection. Hardly two years ago in Sironj mobile phone was unheard of. Today I frequently receive calls from the Sarpanch of one of the villages who, calling from his cell phone, asks me which new Yojana is being dispatched by the Sarkaar in Dilli! Not just he, but many in the villages where I used to work have got mobile phones now, which is not a luxury for them but a boon to their remote villages that are cut off from the rest of the country for many months every year during rains.
Unlike NGOs (which have limited resources, vision and motivation) and the government (with its red-tapism, attitudinal and human resource problems), the corporate sector has huge resources, man power, access to the latest knowhow and the biggest asset – an ability to think out-of-the-box to achieve their goal. The biggest challenge in this case is how to link the problems in rural India to the market forces. In other words, how a problem of rural India can be translated into a corporate revenue model, thus transforming the problem itself into a solution. Can the human resources of villages be tapped as in China? Can our agricultural productivity be raised as in Brazil? Can there exist local BPOs operating from rural India? Can there be a wind power park on the coast of Orissa? Can there be a thousand megawatt super solar power plant in vast, sunny spans of the Thar Desert? All these ideas may sound impractical and too dreamy, but we have to remember, before petroleum was discovered, the Middle East was just another desert! Here lies a great opportunity for IIFMites. With our exposure to rural India and its problems and our training in management, we can act as a bridge between the rural issues and the market forces. If some of us can come up with a feasible revenue model of linking one of these issues and converting it into an opportunity for the Indian corporate sector which is currently undergoing a boom, there is no dearth of capital for an off-track, yet feasible business model. The biggest example here is the foray of Reliance Industries and Bharti Group into the agribusiness sector with thousands of crores of capital. Another good example is the advances of ICICI Bank Ltd in rural banking and microfinance, which will literally capture the rural credit market in the years to come. To set an example as well as benchmarks within the IIFM fraternity, some IIFMites have already pioneered developing the linkage between the process of development and market forces. Vineet Rai (PFM 1996) with Aavishkaar, Mumbai; Sameer Singh (PFM 2001) with IFC, New Delhi; Deepak Mitra (PFM 2002) with Phillips India Ltd., Gurgaon – are a few among many in this growing genre of IIFMites, who are noted for having performed exceedingly well in this relatively less traveled path for IIFMites.
For the current IIFM batches, some more inputs from IIFM – in terms of some research in this aspect, more related courses of enhanced quality, distinguished visiting faculty from the industry – would go a long way in turning IIFM students into stalwarts of a new breed of industries: hybrids of corporate spirit and rural resources. At the same time, the students too have a major responsibility in bringing about this change. Rather than considering our course in IIFM as a ‘paid holiday’ (as one of my seniors told me on my first day at IIFM), we need to widen our horizons of knowledge working hard 24X7, keeping our eyes and ears open, reading and learning latest developments and looking for opportunities that would take us beyond the current trends in IIFM, lest the ‘paid holiday’ (sic) turns into a holiday that has to be paid for all through one’s life!
For those of us who have already passed out, probably the need of the hour is that the entrepreneurs among us come up with an idea out of their experiences in rural India and understanding of Indian economic scenario as of now. The pioneers in this venture are most likely going to leave a lasting impression on the Indian economy and society in the days to come. This is the ultimate opportunity to establish brand IIFM in Indian corporate and development sector with a paradigm shift in the perception of others for us, once and for all.

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Prashant Mishra is an alumnus from PFM 02-04 batch. He worked for PRADAN and Orbis International and currently he is pursuing one year program at ISB Hyderabad.

This article was first published in Sampark. Reproduced here from his blog http://prashantmishra1.blogspot.com

Remembering IIFM

2007-09-30T12:56:00.001+05:30

-- Abhishek Kar (PFM 05-07)

In 2004 when I enrolled for Masters degree programme at Presidency College, Kolkata to specialize in Nuclear Physics, I had never heard of IIFM. But destiny had other plans for me. Ideological conflicts/considerations drew me towards rural energy issues and its importance. With utter dismay, I somehow strongly believed that energy management at village level would ensure energy security of India (a pretty naïve thought-I admit today!) So I started looking for getting training in sociological/managerial training with focus on rural areas to add on to my technical exposure in energy instruments. Googling brought up few options- notably IRMA and IIFM. And I was there at IIFM.

My imagination of IIFM as some obscure building deep inside some jungle did not match with reality. During my GD/PI, I had a quiet visit around the campus situated within Bhopal city. I was lost in the tranquility that envelopes the 200 acre campus with occasional poly-tonic chirping. The campus is frighteningly (for some, majestically) big. I can easily hide in that vastness!

When I joined the course, I found it was not what I would have ideally liked but nonetheless provide me with lot of exposure to rural issues and their inter-linkages. The academic atmosphere is not competing rather if I may use the word “cool”, albeit loosely. I always disliked unnecessary competition and was more than happy to find quite a few compatriots. I went about studying my own areas of interest related to renewable energy. IIFM curriculum does give a lot of time (I would refrain from commenting whether that is good or bad!) to pursue your own interests- be in extra-curricular, research, or just time-pass!

As I wanted to understand the rural energy scenario, literature review (writing to professors of UK and US as a student from a developing country generally helps to get access to high priced research papers) and attending conference (if IIFM attendance requirements hinder my plans, conference proceedings were always available!) was my academic life. Rest is fun, pure fun. Chatting till 3 am with topics ranging from HBR to Censored Stuff, watching movies, going out for dinners (though I have less complaints regarding IIFM mess than my friends in other premiere B-schools) was hallmark of life at IIFM. The grades mattered to some extent (for ease of scholarship during Ph. D-one of my career dreams!) so studies were important to some extent only! I spent time doing original research (in a remote tribal village sacrificing my Diwali vacation) to develop a case study on impact on renewables on rural life which was eventually published by Stockholme Environmental Institute in 2006. Here I must mention that IIFM professors were excellent guides supportive of new ideas and ready to extend help in every possible way, which I consider is more important than the teaching acumen. As someone had said, “What a teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.”

My first internship was a matter of fluke. My publication helped me get discounted conference participation fees in an International conference at Hyderabad. There I met director of West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency. He, by God’s Grace, liked my enthusiasm about renewables though he was polite and graceful enough not to trash my ideas (which were shamefully stupid as I realize today) upfront. So my first internship was a tour of Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove where WBREDA has installed solar power plants giving power to 4% of world’s population dependent on Renewables. I tried to examine technology’s influence on society and society’s influence on technical performance of the solar projects-in other words, interactions between society and technology. I prepared a report on how to involve community in local level energy management (though then I was oblivious to the much touted franchisee concept of Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana) and prepared a socio-technical manual on how to improve the performance of renewables to provide for better quality and quantity of power. TERI, my present employer, is currently executing a government-sanctioned project in Sundarbans on the lines of that work.

Getting my second internship was smooth sailing as WBREDA officials recommended my name to TERI. I did a project with my batchie, Rahul on a World Bank project of documenting case studies and deriving lessons from success and failure stories of renewables projects across India. We also tried to work on a simplified version of advanced energy planning software called HOMER with suitable modifications for Indian conditions.

TERI offered me some sort of a Pre-placement Offer (albeit with formal 6 minute interview session) in December; now I am associated with TERI as a Research Associate. I am working as Project Leader for three out of the seven rural/renewable energy related projects that I am currently associated with. The projects vary from implementation activities to more academic oriented journal research based report writing.

To conclude, IIFM has given me the great platform to pursue my career objectives. More importantly, IIFM at the crossroads of student and professional life was truly a memorable and enjoyable experience.

Technorati Tags: IIFM, IIFM Bhopal, Forest Management

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Abhishek Kar is IIFM Alumnus from PFM 05-07 batch and is currently working as Research Associate with The Energy and Resource Institute.

Changes at IIFM

2007-09-07T20:31:00.000+05:30

For quite some time we have been listening about introducing new courses and increasing batch strength at IIFM, but it has come into effect now. So the batch intake has gone from 45 to 60 and IIFM now offers three specialization (earlier we had electives to choose from) viz. Environment Management, Development Management and Forest Management.

The PGDFM (Post Graduate Diploma in Forestry Management) has been renamed as PGDM (Post Graduate Diploma in Management). Though it would be like PGDM-EM (for Environment Management), PGDM-DM (for Development Management) and PGDM-FM (for Forest Management)

The other significant change is scrapping of M.Phil course and introduction of 4 year Fellow Program.

IIFM is now inviting application for both the programs, one can get more information and download the application form from the following links.

Application Form for 2 Years Post Graduate Program

Application Form for 4 years Fellow Program.

Technorati Tags: IIFM, PFM, Forest management, Post Graduate Diploma

Love for Birds

2007-06-28T16:50:00.001+05:30

You must care for Nature and your care for Nature should turn into Love for it. If you love Nature then you must love it's inevitable part that is "Animal". Among the animals, one of the most beautiful animals is "Bird". Doesn't their twittering make you happy? If so, then please check this http://www.iifm.ac.in/downloads/lark/ .

It is a software created by our beloved CSR sir along with Pratap Singh and Vijay Cavale. This software has many details, including calls (sounds) of birds in Central India. You could download this application free of cost. It's really wonderful.

Post Contributed by Soumik Ghanta PFM 08

Technorati Tags: iifm, lark, birds, nature, birdwatching

Life at IIFM on YouTube

2007-06-28T16:47:00.001+05:30

The web presence of IIFM is weak and this blog is catered to increase it. Now its an effort from PFM 08 batch to add into it. Now a days Youtube is one of most popular video sharing websites. So we have uploaded a photostory about "Life at IIFM".

The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-CXl2m0xfw.
We would like to have your comments, criticisms, suggestions everything.
( Post contributed by Soumik, PFM08 )

Technorati Tags: iifm, pfm, forest management

Passion, Not Pedigree..

2007-06-23T14:07:00.001+05:30

I have been getting some emails and PMs on different forums from IIFM aspirants (thanks to this blog), all asking either how to get into, and if they have already made it, then how to get best of everything (read fat pay packages, though these questions have never been that straight, but you can easily derive the real meaning) from IIFM.

Though I do not have much credentials to talk about Do's and Don'ts at IIFM and How to Get What You Want as only few years back I was wondering about the same. But I can surely say that it is Passion and Pedigree, which matters. I have seen my seniors, batch mates (and colleagues ranging from Harvard to IIM A) and they made it big for the only reason that they were really Passionate about those things.

"Passion, not pedigree, will win in the end." Bon Jovi really gave the winning mantra when he uttered the above words. IIFM alumni list is full of those who believed strongly in something from day one and proved the above statement right.

I can vividly remember our placement session, the first question asked to me about any organization participating in the placement process was " what is the pay package?". People who had come to IIFM singing peans for development sector and activism for poor and downtrodden, did terpsichorean march towards jobs with fat pay packets and little social motive. But a few opted for, what they wanted from day one, and did everything to be there, even that came with very mediocre pay package. And I an only say that they are in far better position. (This para will make many people question and point finger towards the writer... but still...).

The best thing about being passionate about a particular cause, sector, job is that 'if you are really really passionate' the job does not become a job only but a pleasure. So you do not say 'Thanks God, Sunday' but 'Great! Today is Monday'. And when work is passion, growth and satisfaction are there for taking.

I strongly think 'Pedigree' is the word better applicable to 'Dogs' (when it comes to performance) than not to humans. So be passionate and be different........

Technorati tags: iifm

Good Bye IIFM..

2007-03-09T13:48:00.001+05:30

(This is the valedictory speech given by Sudhanshu Bashkar** on Thanks Giving Dinner for placement)

" I will start my story from my interview. I was asked to tell something about myself. A tongue slip costed me dear there. I said " I have good humor". I was asked "How?". I said " I can predict your questions?"

"How"

"From Miss Universe to MBA interviews all questions are same!"

Interview panel laughed. I was waitlisted candidate.

Then I came here, classes started. We received assignment. I came to know about great importance of something called "Google"! You get readymade assignment in every file format.

I said "Its unethical"

I was told "Management is all how well you mobilize your resources". So I also started following the league.

Then there were exams, I scored well in those paper in which I didn't know well and I scored "Not so well" where I thought I had "Core Competence". Then, I, found a strong "Statistical Positive Correlation" between no of sheets and your score. Then I started a strategy which I won't disclose here.

Now, about my "Friends". People, whom I thought were my friends, were proven to be my toughest enemy. For 5% "Class Participation", they attacked me like starved lion. They tore my presentation apart. I could not differentiate between my friends and the cannibals on that day.

Then I started participation in sports. "Healthy Body Healthy Mind". I started going to play Tennis court in early morning. In two days, I realized that "Undulating Topography" has profound impact on the overall well being of human being with pulled muscle and thorns on my foot. I realized that it is better to develop your competence in tennis on "Computer".

Then I went to "OT". I went there without preparation. My Reporting Officer was also waiting without preparation. Both of us did not know what to do about it. So we both enjoyed time together.

Then ours "Juniors" CAME. I have one line to say: after my "OT/FW" presentation, I know that one should not say anything conclusive. Say open ended subjective statements, which can be defended later on.

So I will say about Juniors " A Balanced Batch"

Then I got my "Job" after three rounds of Written Test, One round of "Direct Interview" for 40 minutes and one round of "Telephonic Interview" on my roaming mobile. Then my salary was cut to half that is a separate story.

Now I am delivering my valedictory speech to all of you

"Dear Faculty Members, If respect is in your heart and has no connection with words you speak, then I do respect you a lot. There are few people sitting in front of me whom I have never conveyed my feelings personally, but I respect them a lot. If ever in my life, I could become 1/10 of them I would feel succeeded. I will keep respecting you a lot from deep within my heart. I also wish to thank my friends here, who helped and motivated me in every odd situation, with whom I spent some wonderful and cherishing moments of my life. I also want to thank some of my batch mates who were a constant source of inspiration to me.

I am not ashamed to say that I have learned a lot from my juniors as well. Some of them are real thorough gentlemen and gentlewoman as well.

I want to thank you a lot and I also want to apologize for any of my unintentional wrong doing. Please do not carry any bitter feelings with you. Sorry and Thank You.

[** Sudhanshu Bshakar is a student of PFM 05- 07 batch and he has been placed with Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB)]

Good Bye Seniors

2007-03-04T23:16:00.001+05:30

Well it had to happen one day..if we have the chance that suits us to say "NO"..the "NO" would have been emphatic and roaring.
But Alas!
So this is good bye to all our seniors.
We will miss you.
One way or another, You have had quite an impact on this place and on us.
And you will leave quite a gap here.
But we would not have shortage of memories.
We will remember you for being affectionate.
We will remember you for being caring.
We will remember you for being friendly.
We will remember you for being kind and warm.
We will remember you as elder brother and sister.
If we are honest, we will also remember you for your love...the love which can not be measured by any unit of the world.
Most of all, though, we will remember all for you for being a great person to have around.
What ever you do in life, please carry this bond which has grown over in this two year of life at IIFM.
IIFMight rocks.
[Post contributed by Soumik, PFM08]

Technorati tags: iifm, iifmights

M Phil. Admission

2007-02-26T21:51:00.001+05:30

Some prospective M Phil students sent me emails regarding M Phil courses and related information. I thought it would be better to get someone who knows this course inside out. So I asked Nitin Bassi (M Phil 2006 batch) regarding this and he has kindly agreed to take some time out from his schedule and answer those queries. So those seeking help can contact him on his email id:

bassi43(at) gmail (dot) com

Please keep in mind that for all official enquiries send your emails at

admission (at)iifm (dot) ac (dot) in

Please click here to get to official webpage for M Phil admission.

Microfinance Jobs

2007-02-20T18:25:00.001+05:30

Boom in rural banking and microfinance is evident everywhere (though now people have started doubting its future as well with mushrooming MFIs and dubious practices being adopted by them, yet Microfinance is surely one of the most popular tool to reach at the Bottom of Pyramid and address provide financial services poor people), ICICI and Centre for Microfinanace have come up with job site catering specifically to Microfinance sector.

"ICICI and Centre for Microfinance(http://www.ifmr.ac.in/cmf/)has recently set up a jobsite for microfinance positions called www.microfinancejobs.com to make personnel available for careers in MFIs.
The micro finance job site is expected to recruit over 2,50,000 suitably qualified individuals for the 200 MFIs(ICICI plans to partner with)in partnership with CMF's MFI Strategy Unit (MSU) and provide them with all the necessary training. In addition to seeking applicants from the market, it proposes to tie up with a number of local business schools so that graduating MBA can find an opportunity to work in an MFI which is based in his or her neighborhood itself—this will ensure that these employees will pursue longer-term careers with the MFI and will come with, in addition to business skills, a strong facility with the local language of the region.
For any queries & information regarding Microfinancejobs.com."

This site is surely better designed and more userfriendly than other development sector job sites (http://devnetjobsindia.org http://ruralnaukri.com, while the former has very poor navigation structure, ruralnaukri.com is not free). This site has quite good info on micro-finance sector as well, and they have put some good section like Career Advice (though there is not much info at the moment specific on career advice, but since they site has been launched just recently surely they would be coming up with more.)

Technorati tags: microfinance, jobs

Kalpataru 2007

2007-02-19T23:24:00.001+05:30

The gala annual function of IIFM, Kalpataru 2007 was celebrated on 17^th February evening on a grand scale. The entire IIFM fraternity, including students, faculty members, staff and their family members joined together to celebrate with traditional enthusiasm and cheers. This is uniqueness of IIFM's Kalpataru. No other institutions in India have this sort of celebration where faculty members and their children take part actively.

This year evening function likewise the previous years is the grand finale of the week long cultural and sports literary and adventure events. The programme lasted for three hours. The kalpataru 2007 is very very special because this is the Silver Jubilee year of IIFM. This was adequately reflected by the colourful and cheerful cultural gala presented by the students and children of IIFM family on this final day.

On 17^th evening, while inaugurating the Kalpataru 2007, Shri Hari Mohan Gupta, resident editor, Dainik Jagaran and Pro-Vice Chairman of DPS, Bhopal- Indore expressed his happiness on the progress made by IIFM in the academic and management filed over these 25 years. He congratulated the outgoing students of IIFM, who have acquired appreciable campus placements, that are comparable to top management schools in the country. Prof. D.K. Bandyopadhaya, director IIFM welcomed the Chief Guest and other invites of function. Prof. Suprava Patnaik , Chairperson Of Students affairs briefed the guests about the significance of this grand annual event and hoe this tradition has become part parcel of IIFM community life.

Chosen students are facilitated with various awards. The list is as follows:

Best OT-one---- Ashish Mallik, Kumar Abhishek.

Best OT two----Kurjekar Kaustabh Balachandran.

Best Literary Person--- Sunil Rajagopal( PFM 08).

Best Cultural Person---Ravi Pandey(PFM 08)

Best sports man---Kallol Mandal(PFM08)& Tarvider Singh(PFM07)

Best sportswoman- Bigsna Gill(PFM07)

Matreyi Memorial Prize for best all-rounder—Kallol Mandal(PFM08)

(Post contributed by Soumik of PFM 2008 batch)

Technorati tags: iifm, pfm, kalpataru

Paradise Lost

2007-02-07T21:50:00.001+05:30

A couple of days ago, I visited Universal Book Shop here in Lucknow for my regular dose of books. Books all around, a pleasant and soothing site for a book junkie like me. Though I purchased some books, but some books I was looking I could not spot there (Was looking for Peter Singer's Practical Ethics and Thomos Samual Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) . Most of the stacks were full of popular fiction, gardening, religion and competitive books.

I started thinking about the IIFM days, how wonderful were those days! Just move into your library and the collection there is nothing really less than a heaven for a booklover. Though one may not find authors like Archer, Sheldon, King etc. in galore, but what one can find there, may not find at the most of the places. From the day one, when I got my library card (I still remember my card no. just two short of being Mr.Bond, it was P-005. Can anyone guess who was P-007?) i got my full quota of book issued. five of them. It was tough choice to select 5 of them. And no, I never went for what was given in the reference list for several course curricula.

In few weeks, I have savoured many and fortunately discovered that my dear roomie is generous enough to lend me his library card and Igot option for around ten books. Though academic pressure had a bit of affect on my book reading, but very soon we were able to evolve in exam-tension proof creatures, who came out of slumber just 3-4 days before the exams and manage take them head on (I am not advocating anything here, so please use your own discretion).

It was real pleasure to find some great books which I had never heard of. In my opinion, the IIFM library is the most memorable experience for most of the IIFMights (even for non-book lovers as well.. they enjoy library more than the book lovers... its calm soothing ambience.. oh so nice..).

I still remember one of faculty member saying " You will know the importance of this library once you are out of IIFM" . He was dead right ...Probably I would not be able to enjoy 'the Paradise' again for that long.

Technorati tags: books, iifmights, iifm

IIFM Rocks

2007-01-14T13:23:00.001+05:30

As in the last post Santosh has said that with boom in Indian Economy and banking sector focusing on rural finance, IIFMights are getting outmost important for the recruiters in this sector, this year placement scenario reflects the same. All the leading banks, marketing research organization have came to IIFM campus for this year (2007) placement. Like previous year international organization Olam International came with highest package which is around 30 lakh per annum and it’s a foreign placement.Next highest package was offered by Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) for domestic placement and it was 7.25 lakh per annum. 4 students were placed in IMRB. Talking about the banking sector, ICICI-RMAG has recruited 7 students with package of 6 lakh +, ICICI- Prudential has recruited 7 students with package of 6 lakh+, India Bulls Securities Ltd has recruited 8 students with package of 5 lakh+, HDFC bank has recruited 5 students with package of 4.75 lakh. In the Microfinance Sector, SKS microfinance has recruited 2 students with package of around 3.5 lakh per annum.
Now if I talk about the PPOs (pre placement offer) ,One
Student has done it in the National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) with package of arond 5.75 lakh and one in TERI.
IIFMights are always demanding choice in Paper industry. This year Grasim Industry, part of Aditya Birla Group has recruited 5 students with average package of 3.5 lakh and J.k Paper has recruited I student with package of 3.85 lakh per annum.
Considering the all package , the average package will be around 6 lakh+ which is far better than last year package of 4.2 lakh+ and according to our seniors and professor it will be better in the coming years.
Santosh in his last post has already given kudos to our placement
coordinator Ashish Mallik sir. I also thank Ashish sir and other seniors
who has set this high benchmark. I also thank our favorite sir Prof.
Biswas sir for his continuous and meticulous efforts in the placement,
without him this was not possible.

Contributed by Soumik Ghanta (PFM 2008).. The figures quoted in the post are approximate..

Technorati tags: IIFMights, placements 2007, iifm

Placements 2007 @ IIFM

2007-01-11T20:52:00.001+05:30

Only one word to describe placements at IIFM this year.. "Fantastic". Placements at IIFM have never been a problem but this year placements can be said one of the best placements in IIFM history. On day one of placement week, all placed. Average Salary more than 6 lacs (wait for the detailed and official figures, will be posting soon here).

Since I have been witness to IIFM placements since Placements 2005 and probably that was the year when IIFM placements started getting better and better. Prof. Biswas as Placement Chairperson and then newly appointed Director Sir, did some really good work and it has started showing up now.

Though I have heard the stories of IIFM placements where guys have to be pushed to go into Pre Placement Talks as everyone was sure of getting more than one offer. But recently, everything is getting into a proper structure, the students are focused to set up new benchmarks.

With the boom in economy and banking majors going on hiring spree IIFM guys were all set to make merry but one day placement week was really something. Kudos to Placement Committee (Ashish & Co).

(Any one willing to take the responsibility of posting of details of Placement 2007.. PFM 2008..listening..??)

Technorati tags: IIFM, Placements 2007, IIFMights, PFM

Few hrs in IIFM

2006-12-26T16:45:00.000+05:30

I was in IIFM on 24th evening, I was surprised - I have been living in Vidisha for four months and never found time to come to IIFM, meet juniors or faculties. Well you need not know reason for your action all the times.... isn't it.

Reason for being there was a small party on xmas eve thrown by Santosh, he was living with me in vidisha and we came togehter to Bhopal. Everything was quite familier guys playing baddy, almost empty CC (junior batch at the campus is out on field trip), same coldness and calmness around Academic block, and comparatively live environment inside hostel, I remebered the same period last year winters + placements + no class tension + partys.

Few changes which I noticed were in Mess, now there is a rack inpace of the table to keep belongings, curtains and music system well placed with speakers tugged to wall, and Boys hostel, Mr Arya's room is now Common room and the Store Room (in front of Mr Arya's room) is now Gym. This time I was without my camera but next time, I will be there fully packed.

It was nice meeting with the all juniors too, had nice time together, and am thinking of a party on new year's eve but there is a committment with Santosh now, so will have to wait for him to come back to vidisha/bhopal.

the end is near

2006-12-08T09:24:00.000+05:30

No, I am not Nostradomus or any relative or follower of his to predict the end of the world, I am talking about this blog IIFMight which is coming to an end.

Probably this would be the last post (and a long post) on the blog and thereafter the domain http://iifm.blogspot.com will take you to the famous/infamous Blogger: 404 Page not found.... page.

When we joined IIFM in June 2004 (and had our debate discussing branding of IIFM) one of thing came out of the discussion that IIFM lacked brand visibilty out of the sector. So a guy looking for information on business school does not come across so easily to IIFM and those who know IIFM (from advertisements and admission notices in newspapers) were not exactly sure about IIFM. Searching info about IIFM on web was also not fruitful as there were very few pages (apart from official website) on IIFM (one of the more popular pages was by Shikha Kalra on http://envindia.com a website run by our alumnus Chandra Kishore) and that page was not quite well recognised by the search engines as there was no emphasis on SEO techniques.

When I started this blog, blogging was not a term in everyones vocabulary and but a mention of this by CSR in classroom regarding my new initiative made many people to join as member (its another thing that many didnot contribute more than thier name on team member list!!). Though there were some early enthusiast who contributed and but could not sustain the same level of enthusiasm later.

But with 4-5 regular contributors, it came this far. Around 150 post in two years (not bad almost 2-3 post per week) and average 8-10 new visitors per day. The search engine rating of this blog went quite high (second most popular page after iifm official website) for anyone looking any info on IIFM and it directed many info seekers to this webpage and which later resulted in our mailbox getting bombarded with all sort of queries on IIFM and going through the queries we realized how little the students were knowing about IIFM.

Many of its contributed, started their own blog and their blogs are doing quite well (most notable is Nitin's Hindi blog). Since this was a community blog (read the tag line "blogs of IIFMight") the idea was content generation through community participation but this idea of Community Participation was not as appealing as Class Participation so later batches did not show any keen interest in contribution. Probably we didnot make much effort to elaborate on objectives of IIFMights.

So what were the objectives we had in mind while starting the blog?

Increasing webpresence of IIFM and letting the world know what IIFM is all about by putting up experiences and opinions of the student on the web.
Providing one source of guidance to future students.
Creating database of experiences of its students
Letting the new students know more about thier alumni by thier thoughts and providing them a chance to interact with them.
Building strong brand for IIFM while providing quality content and attracting visitors all across the world.

All the above objectives were partially fulfilled barrring the last one. I tried to request "issue centric" contribution from many of our alumnus without much luck.

On personal front, this blog gave me a lot. Invariable the enquiries about IIFM will found a place in my mail box and I made a point to answer all of them withought a fail. So I knew almost all of the new batches coming to campus or vice versa.

I think, the post is becoming too long. At the end I would like to have your comments regarding its shutdown (as it is not a personal blog though i have all the adiminstrative rights), should I go for that? For the moment, the blog is crying...

Give me contributors or Give me death...

Technorati tags: IIFM, IIFMights, Forest Management

Some queries answered about IIFM Admissions

2006-10-02T02:59:00.000+05:30

I have been receiving emails, chat request and scraps on Orkut regarding some common queries releated to IIFM admission procedure and other related aspects. So, i thought its better to compile those at one place, so that I do not have answer each one individually.

For all IIFM aspirants, following links can satisfy most of the queries.

www.iifm.ac.in IIFM's Official Website.

http://www.iifm.ac.in/admission/index.htm information related to admissions.

www.iifm.ac.in/admission/placements.html Placement information

Now some often asked questions.

Queries Regarding Admission

How to apply for IIFM?

IIFM considers CAT scores (Conducted by IIMs) for shortlisting candidates for GD/PI Call. So one must register for Common Admission Test in order to apply for IIFM.

Apart from applying for CAT, you need to apply for IIFM separately. Forms can be downloaded from http://www.iifm.ac.in/admission/admform.html

What is the minimum cut off percentile for GD/PI Calls ?

Minimum Cut off percentile depends on the number of applicants. Going by the last two years, Cut Off percentile, one can safely predict that a score of more than 90 percentile is sure to get a call for GD/PI.

IIFM also has sectional cut off for different sections, so one need to have a balanced score card.

A look at the CAT score of the successful candidates in GD/PI reflects that average score for a succesfful candidate is between 92-96 percentile.

What is the intake for PFM Course?

45 students (including seats reserved as per Govt. Rules and Regulations). Though there is probability that this figure will increase.

Do all the students get scholarship as mentioned on the iifm website ?

Yes. Scholarship is paid to all the enrolled students.

Queries Regarding Placements

What kind of career options are available to IIFM Grads?

Going by the placements of last 3 years (we are considering only recent trends), IIFM grads have got offers/working from the following organization. The list just provides you an indication of what kind of career options student have got in past.

Developemental NGO (in random order, the list is indicative)
- PRADAN
- Aide et Action
- Dhan Foundation
- BASIX
- National Innovatoin Foundation
Environmental Consultancies /NGO
- ATREE
- Asia Carbon
- Eco -Securities Limited
Banks
- ICICI banks
- UTI
- ABN Amro
Microfinance Organization
- SKS Microfinance
- Grameen Koota
- FWWB
Research and Consultancy
- CMF(Centre for Microfinance)
- CDF (Centre for Development Finance)
- Intellicap
Trading
- Olam International
- ITC

Is placement always 100%?

Yes. IIFM has an impressive record of 100% placement since inception. Normally every student has more than one offer to choose from. The average offer per student for last batch PFM 2006 was more than 2.5 offers per person.

What is the average salary offered?

The average salary for last years placment is approx 4.2 lacs per annum.

Miscellaneous

(Some really interesting questions.... ;-)

Are there any girls studying there?

Yes.

Do we have to work in forest after the course?

No, unless and untill you decide to do participatory research on trible lifestyle of some tribes. I do not know any IIFMigh doing that. Almost all the grads are placed in district headquarters even if they decide to work for NGO who are working at grass root level.

Why do bank/corporates recruite from IIFM as they have nothing to do with forest?

PFM covers all the aspects of management like any other MBA, with focus on application of these theories in forestry and related aspects. So it equips students with all the necessary management skills to excell at these profiles. Moreover, IIFM alumni have proven their credentials in many diverse roles.

Is IIFM safe for girls ?

(Common queries from girls and their parents)

Yes. As safe as anyother place.

What is the cost of living?

3000 bucks are more than enough to take care of all the expenses ( if you are not prodigal).

I have tried to answer almost all the common queries I receive. If you need some more info, pleae leave your question in comment section.

Disclaimer: All the information provided in the post, is based on my experience and interaction with current students. I do not claim infalliability of any information given here. So far any clarification, consult IIFM Website.

Technorati tags: iifm, admission, PGDFM, PFM, CAT, Forest Management

del.icio.us tags: iifm, PGDFM, Forest Management

BuzzNet tags: iifm, admission, PGDFM, PFM, Forest Management

Digitally Handicapped

2006-09-08T18:47:00.000+05:30

NYT columnist Thoms L Friedman in his best selling work The Lexus and The Olive Tree remarked

While the defining measurement of the Cold War was weight - particularly the throw weight of missiles - the defining measurement of the globalization system is speed - speed of commerce, travel, communication and innovation. The Cold War was about Einstein's mass-energy equation, e = mc2 . Globalization tends to revolve around Moore's Law, which states that the computing power of silicon chips will double every eighteen to twenty-four months, while the price will halve. In the Cold War, the most frequently asked question was: "Whose side are you on?" In globalization, the most frequently asked question is: "To what extent are you connected to everyone?" In the Cold War, the second most frequently asked question was: "How big is your missile?" In globalization, the second most frequently asked question is: "How fast is your modem?"

Here in Freetown (Sierra Leon), waiting for 45 minutes, to get a crucial mail downloaded, I fully realized what it meant. My mail client is showing 'downloading 1 of 19 mails' and this message is being displayed since eons and the data transfer rate.. I am ashamed to reveal that its in bytes, around 8-10 bytes per second. The mail in question is supposed to contain some key information for the meeting scheduled next hour. I cannot do anything, the person who sent me the mail is not available on phone as he is not in network area.

It make me in very precarious situation, I am accessing Internet through wi-fi network installed by the hotel (where i am staying) and there is no other way to access the net. But the speed of wi-fi is pathetic. No connectivity would have been better. At least, I could have been relying on age old alternatives. But here you know there are 19 mails waiting for, do not know what is in store in those mails.

Lets see, if I can overcome this digital handicap, going to find some alternatives, probably a cyber cafe nearby, and hope that it has data transfer speed at least in killobytes.

Tags: Travel, Africa, Sierra Leon, Freetown, Technology, Internet, Thoughts, Personal

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Google Image Lebeler - A cool and engaging game

2006-09-07T17:40:00.000+05:30

The tagging phenomenon is catching up and even Google is not untouched by it. Google has come with this brilliant game where users try to guess labels for randomly selected picture by Google. Google Image Labeler Beta is catching up fast in popularity as cool online tool, as well brilliant utility.

Once you log in to play this game, Google selects a random online user as your partner and throws a picture to both of you and watching the picture you have to select a label for the picture. Both users guess and select keywords which describes the picture and once they reach a common word, Google gives you another picture to play again. If you do not want to guess keyword for particular picture, you pass the picture and choose another one. The total time available is 1.30 minutes, within this you can guess as many pictures as possible. For each correct match (where you and your partner chooses the same word for the given picture), you will get 100 points.

So enjoy and help Google tag all the pictures with suitable words.

Tags: google, images, labeler, beta, game, tagging

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सादर नमन

2006-09-05T13:24:00.000+05:30

आज शिक्षक दिवस के अवसर पर समस्त गुरुजनों को प्रणाम एवं नमन, जिनकी सीख एवं आशिर्वाद से जीवन में कुछ करने के काबिल बना ।

Youthink - WorldBank's New Initiative

2006-08-29T03:14:00.000+05:30

Worldbank has come up with a new site, Youthink mainly aimed at making youth aware about the sevaral issues like AIDS, Corruption, Disablity, Urbanisation, Developement, Poverty. The site provides stories and data on these issues as well as opportunity to interact and participate through interneship, sharing stories and contributing to the site.
The site is very good starting point for studying the above mentioned issues and getting proper orientation to the subject. The information has been provided in very interesting and lucid manner, but there are links given for those who want to develop deeper insight on these issues.

Technorati : Issues, Worldbank, Resources, Reference

IIFM Waking Up

2006-08-12T18:20:00.000+05:30

IIFM has now taken the much needed step towards attracting students and making it known to many aspiring students. The recent banner advertisement on http://coolavenues.com is a small step in this direction but it reflects the changed mindset.

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Kudos to the Team Synergy !!!

2006-08-03T06:38:00.000+05:30

In a way it's a nice feeling to bump against lost souls, better if it happens to be your alma mater. Lost not in the literal sense of the word but in a way ;yup; certainly yes when it happens to be a scoop of out nostalgia. I can already speculate on the amount of excitement and the buzz that must be doing the rounds back home in lush green locales of the campus. In many ways it can be a start of many chapters to be penned; in many; none of any. Depends on where you guys want to steer it into.

Restrospecting I too gather and recollect the magazine Sampark that we used to have, sadly though it did not end up the way we would have ideally liked it to be. On the contrary...lessons to be learnt...parts to do-undo....food for thought..and realise the importance of the short stint at IIFM. Believe me...time passes in a jiffy in IIFM..this is a group sentiment which I am reflecting.

So guys make the most out of it..Its really a treat to see Synergy ...up....alive and raring to go.
Nitin's post do touched on some intricacies...carry the advice well..Nitin's never short on it.But in technical lingo..he had been a very crafy member of the Literary committee...crafts ...Nitin...did you hear that dude...hmmm...

At the outset..a very formal..or do I put a very all out n' open welcome to all the fresh brains in the campus...we have hardly had any chance to interact with the new PFM 2008...Guys make the most out of IIFM...believe me this place is amazingly different...I dont have any reservations about being in IIFM..It's not just the regular run-of-the-mill types MBA college..neither do you guys are in any ways...

The due share of credit also falls in for Mayank and Satyajit..for making it all happen...do keep the spirits high...and the going great...Somebody said, 'In life go straight and turn right'.
Pats on the back also to Pranita and the two Rahuls. Thats the way

Synergy..if you can rip the word looks much like synergised energy.

That says and sums the spirit of this blog I guess.
Loads of wishes...

Team Synergy

2006-07-30T21:20:00.000+05:30

Synergy (or should i say Sampark in its new form) is commendable effort and the it has been possible mainly through the efforts of Mayank, Satyajit (both from PFM 2007) and always inspiring and helping Dr. C.S. Rathore. Synergy is now two issue old and there is a lot going on to make it more comprehensive and more useful. And the way the new team is working it seems we are surely bound to get some pleasant surprises.

Here is a look at the new Team Synergy, I had a chance to interact with all of them and this interaction made me believe that these people are surely on way to achieve something big.

Mayank Chaturvedi - PFM 2007

Graduate from Bhopal School of Soial Sciences. One of the two guys who were taking all the pain to make Synergy happen. Brilliant literary skills and supported by envious dedication to the cause, is making sure that Synergy is on time and offers substantial value to its readers.

Satyajit Das - PFM 2007

Accountancy Graduate from Sambalpur University, Orissa. He made sure that 'Synergy' happens, with his excellent computer skills and organizational capabilities. His computer and graphic design skills need no description from me as he has already shown with Kalpataru website and OT brochure. He is also the taking care of Alumni affairs as Alumni Coordinator.

Rahul Kumar - PFM 2008

Agriculture Science graduate from BHU Varanasi. Loves to solve puzzles and has keen interest in Gardening and Palmistry. One can expect some good contributions on topics like Agricultural Marketing and related subject.

Rahul Bhardwaj - PFM 2008

Electronic and Communication Engineer from Kumoun Engineering College. Loves to read and write poems. A very creative guy, Tean Synergy will be looking to extract maximum from him.

Pranita Bhagat - PFM 2008

She has done her Masters in Environmental Sciences. A voracious reader. She is also the Literary Committe Coordinator for her batch. Along with two Rahuls, she would be taking care of Campus news and articles from faculty and different sections of Synergy.

Best of Luck to you all.

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Synergy@IIFM

2006-07-21T18:28:00.000+05:30

Synergy is the new e-magazine started by IIFMights(guys of PFM 2007, to be specific).A few years ago,we used to have another online magzine,Sampark, which was also supposed to be a platform for interaction between students & Alumni, but We(2006), were unable to bring even a single issue and Sampark met its untimely death.

Synergy, is the new Avatar of Sampark, I suppose, and felt nice to see its second issue on IIFM 's website. Kudos to Satyajit & Mayank(I feel sorry for his Blog, it is hibernating since last one year) and hope that they continue their effort in future also. I know its very difficult to arrange content and articles on a continuous basis.

Few observations/requests. With the new issue coimng out, I could not find the older issue on website. It will be good if you have previous issues somewhere there(Two year old Sampark still exists there, why not two month old Synergy). If it is not allowed on official site, we can put it here on Blog also.

Better, if you can put the magzine link on some more places(blogs, orkut, cool avenues). Will help us attracting more readers.

Also, will expect some campus news in the magzine.(e.g.- around 3:1 male/female ratio in new batch is a very HOT news :) )

Last...can anybody inform me if Kaleidoscope is still there????

Cheers.....

Use GMail as Backup drive

2006-07-09T00:07:00.000+05:30

GMail apart from providing wonderful email service, also works as cool utility to backup your critical data. Install GMail file extension and you will have one more drive GMail drive in your computer which you can use as normal hard disk drive with 2 GB of memory space. Just login with your gmail id. All the data put in this drive will be stored as emails in your gmail account, so even if you are not carrying your laptop, you can access that data from anywhere easily.

The earlier version was having some login problems but the new version has overcome that problem.

Download GMFS (112 KB)

Tags: Gmail, Gmail drive, tech-talk, tips

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Flock - The new browser on the block.

2006-07-02T01:24:00.000+05:30

Going through BlogLines top link, I just stumbled over this browser. Flock - A Free web-browser based on Firefox engine, has some really great features with cool looks (one can downloads themes and activate). The key features which i loved about this browser are

Photosharing made easy - I integrated my flickr account and it enabled me to upload photos to my flickr account by just drag and drop. It also supports Photobukets account.

Blogging made easy - It works as your blog publishing tool as well and supports almost all the major blog publishing sites (Blogger.com,WordPress.com, Movabletype, Xanga etc.) Though it is not as feature rich as Qumana, when it comes to blog publishing tool, but nonetheless it does a great work. I integrated my blogger.com and wordpress accounts without any hassles.

Newsfeed Made Easy - I have integrated Lektora in my Internet Explorer for newsfeed/rss content. But Flock has inbuilt newsfeed/rss reader and it automatically updates your newsfeeds. You can also import other OPML file to get you all feeds at one place easily.

Other benefits of being based on Firefox engine are inherently available. So it blocks popup, allows tabbed browsing, has enhanced security /anti spyware features.

Tags: flock, tech-talk, internet, blogging

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One More Obit - www.iifm.org is dead.

2006-06-21T02:29:00.000+05:30

The last post by Nitin aptly describes my feelings as well. Though i have still conserved all the memories, yes, i have almost all the mails i received at ssingh@iifm.ac.in. Sadly this email id is no longer with me. It has been the battle field where numerous mail wars have been fought, won, lost and several armstices/truces achieved. I have been at receiving end of many mail wars, sometime as Placement Coordinator, sometime as Class Reprsentative and what not. Going back one feels how stupid we were ( I dont know about you, but i was.). The whole thing ran through the mind.

But one happy thing about that xyz@iifm.ac.in, it put us together before it died, it made all of us to fight (together) for one common cause, to make it permanent. Though we have been defeated or should i say we have not been successful, but certainly we have initiated the process and i feel one day or another we will get that.

I had not finished mourning over the demise of ssing@iifm.ac.in and came across the startling fact that http://www.iifm.org has also expired. And this is more serious, as all our official documents, carry this domain and not the alternate domain http://www.iifm.ac.in . It is also the first result when you search for IIFM in Google. So all those who will search for IIFM will be led to a non functional site/not official site of IIFM. I have done my part by informing the authorities, let see what happens next.

Tags: IIFM, PFM2006

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Death of an email id...

2006-06-20T17:00:00.000+05:30

Official IIFM email ids' of the batch 2006 were deactivated last week...

Though the process is repeated every year for the outgoing batch, eventhen, batch resisted the move a lot and wrote to whomever they can....

Reason....for two years xyz@iifm.ac.in was identity for 44 of us, and a symbol of proud too.
It gave a sense of belongingness and ownership with the institute.
The platform was a witness of endless mailwars, assignmnets sharings, announcements by CR/Faculty and what not...anything you wanted to share, put it to Group Mail.

I dont understand why institute cannot keep these email ids forever. I dont think cyberspace is too costly nowadays and even if it costs , i believe institute is very much capable of paying(we all know, how things work in the month of March)..

Hope They will think upon it...

Till then...Orkut hai na...

Satish Kumar- A remarkable person

2006-06-04T19:18:00.000+05:30

Few years ago, I cam across an article in Life Positive a thought provoking interview of Satish Kumar, a person talking about environment, ecology, holistic living. The interview made me to look for some more info on Satish Kumar and his works. An easy search on google gave me enough about this amazing personality. Since then I have been regularly following his articles and his magazine ‘Resurgence’.

Mr. Satish Kumar cannot be put into the category of charismatic leader or into the category of bestselling authors by many, but he is a living example of how one person can live a life in synchronization with nature and how he can contribute through his life. As program director of Schumacher College (an institution running several programs on communal living, ecological well being, sustainable life..) he has been instrumental in getting people like James Lovelock (Gaia theory fame), Fritjof Capra (author of famous The Tao of Physics and New Wisdom).

He has been greatly influenced by personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Binoba Bhave, Bertrand Russell and has devoted all his life to great cause of ecological well being. His strong belief in living a non violent and sustainable life style has made him a champion of ecological and sustainable movements, his influence has resulted in some great institution like Beej Vidyapeeth (run by Vandana Shiva) at Dehradun, India.

Inspired by Binaba Bhave he has himself taken many walking pilgrimage across the continent to promote peace, sustainable life and ecological wellbeing without a single penny along with him. The pilgrimage walk proved efficacy of human relationship, and how human mind is stirred by compassion and generosity even in this materialistic era.

Comedy of errors....

2006-05-11T10:59:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, Madhu came to Hyderabad to join SKS…

She had already informed Jyoti and Aparupa regarding her arrival….but because Aparupa was in a meeting , Jyoti alone went to station to receive Madhu…

Now when we came out of meeting, Aparupa called Madhu and Jyoti about whether they found each other or not….

Read the conversation below...…keep in mind the respective accent of all three ladies, how they express when they are exasperated and you will enjoy it the most.....

Place : AeA Office, Lakdi ka Pul, Hyderabad

Aparupa(To Madhu): कहा है तु? ट्रेन आ गयी क्या? ज्योती मिली तुझे? (Madhu, Where r u? Has train arrived, U met Jyoti? )

Madhu: (something-something from that side…which meant that she was unable to contact Jyoti yet)

Aparupa: ठीक है...तु रुक , मैं ज्योति को फोन करती हूँ (Ok u wait there, i will call jyoti)

Aparupa : (calls Jyoti)…तू पहुँची नही अभी तक?..(Jyoti..u didnt reachded there yet?? )

Jyoti: (something-something which meant she is trying to call Madhu…she has reached station)

Aparupa: Go to Platform number 4....
Jyoti : OK

Me: (Listening all this conversation and wondering ...why didnt they exchanged train number, coach, birth details beforehand....? )

5 Minutes later

Aparupa to Madhu : ज्योति पहुँची? (didn Jyoti reached there?)
Madhu : मेरी बात हुई उससे अभी फोन पे ..पर वो पहुँची नही अब तक.... (I talked to her on phone...but she didnt reached yet)

Aparupa: (next call to Jyoti)..क्या हुआ ज्योती? (What happened Jyoti?)

Jyoti: मैने पूरा प्लेटफॉर्म देख लिया पर वो नही मिल रही..और अब मेरा फोने भी नही लग रहा है शायद वो ६ नम्बर पर है..I searched whole platform number 4..but couldnt find her...and now even my phone is also not connecting.....it seems that she is on platform no 6 (imagine the look on jyoti's face in such situations :D )

Me(listening all this conversation in Office)- To Aparupa..Either tell Madhu not to move from where she is , or if she does not have much luggage, come to 'lakdi ka pul' taking an Auto…we will call jyoti also back .

Aparupa ( to Madhu) :@#&^&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;%^@*&^%E&^%E$# (Something-something in Bangoli.... imagine these two conversing in Bengali.....as good as Mangolian for me...but a nice change after hearing Telugu/Tamil for last one month)….....)

Aparupa again calling Jyoti

Aparupa to Jyoti : क्या हुआ ज्योति, कहा है तू...? वो वहीं खडी है प्लेटफोर्म ४ पे..ठीक से देख...या फिर वापस आजा..(What happened Jyoti...where are you...she is there only..on Plateform 4..look properly or come back…)

Now..here, sitting in office...i some how manage to stop my laugh.....looking again & again at Aparupa calling both of them one by one......

Suddenly, there is a short circuit in uppermost part of my body, a tubelight (may be a low voltage CFL) switches on there…I ask Aparupa to call madhu again and ask….

Aparupa : Which station are you on Madhu?

Madhu: ...Hyderabad South.....

Reapeat the same process with Jyoti

Aparupa:ज्योति..कौन से स्टेशन पे खडी है तू..? (Jyoti, which station you are on...? )

Jyoti: Secunderabad…

Aparuppa.: kyaa…......%^%^*&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;&&^%%!$&*

Jyoti from Other side: &amp;amp;amp;amp;^&(@*()*@!^

Hang the phone..

Me : laugh….:) :D :D

Some Pics from Cote D'Ivoire

2006-05-10T06:37:00.000+05:30

A tale of ex-IIFM Faculty

2006-05-07T20:57:00.000+05:30

First my where abouts: am in puri right now and involved in few small works........
Today we went to visit Bhubneswar 60 kms from puri, along with my colleague Jayesh (XIM passout ), Vipin and Ruchita (interns from IIM-L). We visited dhaulgiri the budhist stup and Nandankanan zoo and XIM.

The third place got my worst fears up........... Oh god i shud not see Mr Neeraj (guys u remmber him na) and that came true. I thought he wud not recognize me for he taught for 30 days or so only but he did recignize and then the worst things .............. he did not ask anything reg me or IIFM for the whole five minutes.................... during this he did takd to jayesh and IIM L Interns regarding some of his acuaintances but nothing reg IIFM, donot know why but its a part of ettiquete that u do not ignore a specific person in group.

Conclusion: Donotknow if he was sort of screwed up during his five year stay at IIFM , but he has not changed with his attitude and communication.............. yes i mean it.

Well just wanted to share this episode , so this vomit.

The best part of the day was actually the zoo where i saw lots of birds , reptiles and ofcourse white tigers.

When am writing this am
wearing: jeans and kurti
time: 9:50 PM
wrting: on my personal laptop
watching : tremor news in delhi

Change is the only constant..

2006-04-05T14:52:00.000+05:30

Writing to this blog after a long gap, a lot has change during this period. Student life at IIFM, Bhopal has come to an end and became a very beautiful chapter of my life. Suddenly visit to www.google.com has become less frequent, because now the assignments which I have got as an employee have to be done, you cannot use copy/past to complete them. You cannot even assign them to your friends (Alas! there is nothing called group assignment.) you have to do it individually. No counting of number of classes that you can miss per term, you have to attend each and every session.
On the other hand, you get a substantial amount at the end of month (No need to call home for money!), instead of thinking how to meet expenses of whole month, some thoughts of investment which can provide better returns (you start realizing that bank interest rates on deposits are very low) starts coming to your mind. Now, no longer one thinks of placements at other b-schools and what students at other b-schools are doing (unless your alma mater creeps into the discussion.)
For me, the change was too much. From India to Africa (Abidjan) . For me spending time with my family was the most precious things, now I find myself miles away, among completely different set of people, who speak different language, have different values, different culture and different attitude towards life. From once a week visit to bookshop to complete halt. Where can I go? There are no book shop selling English / Hindi books. I always used to dream about buying a lot of books once I get sufficient money to spend on them. Situation has not changed much in this case. Earlier I used to have a lot of books worth buying but not much money. Now, money is not a problem, but I cannot get the books I want to buy. My desperate visits to bookshops at different malls and shopping complex yielded no result. All you can get is French books and magazines. Though some English magazines I can get but not sufficient enough satisfy my voracious hunger. Though you can find a lot of those magazines, whose sell does not depend on the language, there is nothing to be read, but a lot to be seen.
But, scarcity of English books has given me one more reason to learn French, apart from being necessity in a francophone country, so very soon I would be having something to read.

Pack-Up.....

2006-02-26T11:20:00.000+05:30

It does not seems to long when i bade final good baye to my seniors on this plateform only after their placment farewell party...and now its time for me to say goodbye...we are in the last phase of IIFM life and will be finishing on 28th of this month...

Bathc gave placement party to faculty and juniors yestreday and will be getting farewell High Tea on 28th evening....

and then everything will change and these days will just become memories...

Though again have to come back on 1st april for convocation....will be recieving my diploma...gives a good feeling...but how these 20 months passed away...i dont know...just seem a few days back, i was here, full of uncertainities and anxiety, weighing my options whether i shoul take admission here or some other institute and now, here i m , passing away, with a good job and woth lots of memories..

Thank You IIFM, for everything u blessed me with...

With Love...

Virender Sikanaya

2006-02-25T01:53:00.000+05:30

Ushnish Chattopadhaya

2006-02-25T01:38:00.004+05:30

Ushnish Chattopadhyay
Date of Birth: 18.01.1978
Permanent Address:
Falguni Apartment, 140-Ashokegarh, Kolkata- 700108
Permanent Phone No.: 033-2577-8632
Emails: 98260-49740
Mobile: chattopadhyay24@yahoo.co.in

Swapan Mehra

2006-02-25T01:38:00.003+05:30

Swapan Mehra
Date of Birth: 12th July 1981
Permanent Address:
5/7, Punjabi Bagh Extn., New Delhi: 110026
Permanent Phone No.: 011-25692707
Emails: swapanmehra@yahoo.com
Mobile: 09425378135

Subhrajyoti Saha

2006-02-25T01:38:00.002+05:30

SubhroJyoti Saha
Date of Birth: 19-01-82

Permanent Address:
GB Road Narayan Tala Road (w), Deshbandhu Nagar
Baguiati, Kolkata
Permanent Phone No.: 033 - 25763734
Emails: s.j.saha@gmail.com

Subhendu Ghorami

2006-02-25T01:38:00.001+05:30

Subhendu Ghorami
Date of Birth: 24-11-77
Permanent Address:
C/o-Anup Ghorami,Sukna BPHC, Sukna, Siliguri
Dist : Darjeeling, West Bengal
Permanent Phone No.:
Emails: subhendu11242yahoo.com, subhendu24112rediffmail.com
Mobile: 9433401014

Subhash Das

2006-02-25T01:38:00.000+05:30

Subhash Chandra Das
Date of Birth: 31/07/1971
Permanent Address:
Janakpur-9, sarswati tole
Permanent Phone No.: 00977-41-521988
Emails: mailto:Id:chandni_das@rediffmail.com
Mobile:

Shyam Patro

2006-02-25T01:23:00.003+05:30

Shyam K. Patro
Date of Birth: 14-10-78
Permanent Address:
J/125-128 Tilak Nagar Gudhiyari Raipur
Permanent Phone No.: 0771-5531656, 2592556
Emails:
Mobile: 09300200665

Sashi Ranjan

2006-02-25T01:23:00.002+05:30

Saurabh Kumar

2006-02-25T01:23:00.001+05:30

Saurabh Kumar Chaturvedi
Date of Birth: 10-02-80
Permanent Address:
36, St Peter’s Colony, Agra – 282003
Permanent Phone No.: 0562 - 2854154
Emails: Saurabhishere@gmail.com
Mobile: 9826092685

Santosh Singh

2006-02-25T01:23:00.000+05:30

Santosh Singh
Date of Birth: 01/03/1978
Permanent Address:
S/o Shiv Prasann Singh, Old Motihari Road, Muzaffarpur
Permanent Phone No.:0621-2235776
Emails:san1378@yahoo.com, san1378@gmail.com,
Mobile:09826743157

Mandar Samvatsar

2006-02-25T01:06:00.004+05:30

Mandar Samvatsar
Date of Birth: 26 august 1981
Permanent Address:
40, c/3 Town Center, Aurangabad
Permanent Phone No.: 0240- 2484140
Emails: mandarcrec@rediffmail.com mandarcrec@yahoo.com

Ruchi Tripathi

2006-02-25T01:06:00.003+05:30

Ruchi Tripathi
Date of Birth: 13/01/1982

Permanent Address:
19, Dwarkapuri kotra
Bhopal, M.P.
Permanent Phone No.: 0755-2766513
Emails: ruchi_tripathi1321@yahoo.co.in
Mobile: 09425372217

Rohit Toppo

2006-02-25T01:06:00.002+05:30

Rohit T Toppo
Date of Birth: 21st jan 1979

Permanent Address:
Permanent Phone No.: 06542-246728
Emails: rohittoppo@gmail.com.rohi, mailto:rohittoppo@gmail.com.rohitoppo@rediffmail.com

Richa

2006-02-25T01:06:00.001+05:30

Richa Mathur
Date of Birth: 26.04.82
Permanent Address:
D/o Mr. B K Mathur, Chand choura, Gaya- 823001
Permanent Phone No.: (0631) 436080
Emails: richa2006@gmail.com

Ranjan Kumar

2006-02-25T01:06:00.000+05:30

Ranjan Kumar
Date of Birth:19.3.1979
Permanent Address:
C/o SNP Sinha, 388, cooperative colony, Bokaro
Permanent Phone No.: 09835364960
Emails: ranjan_barnwal@yahoo.co.in
Mobile: 09826751747

Rahul Kumar Singh

2006-02-25T00:48:00.003+05:30

Rahul Kumar Singh
Date of Birth: 23/02/1980

Permanent Address:
O/84, Doctors' Colony kankarbagh
Patna – 800020 Bihar
Permanent Phone No.:0612 - 2353126
Emails: singhkrahul@rediffmail.com, singhrahulk@yahoo.com

Pushkar Parashar

2006-02-25T00:48:00.002+05:30

Pushkar Parashar
Date of Birth:10-10-80
Permanent Address:
C/o Dr R P Sinha, Behind Mandi, Maulaganj, Darbhanga
Permanent Phone No.: 06272 - 2230396
Emails: pushkar_parashar@yahoo.c.in
Mobile: 9431836500

Priyank Pradeep

2006-02-25T00:48:00.001+05:30

Priyank Pradeep
Date of Birth: 12th Sep 2005
Permanent Address:
C-156, Sector-A, Mahanagar, Lucknow-226006
Permanent Phone No.: 0522-371184
Emails: priyankpradeep@gmail.com

Prabhat Upadhyay

2006-02-25T00:48:00.000+05:30

Prabhat Upadhyaya
Date of Birth: 20-04-1984

Permanent Address:
H.No – 1859/2, Basant Vihar Colony
Near Housing Board,
Kalka- 133302, Distt- Panchkula (Haryana)
Permanent Phone No.: 01733-221151
Emails: prabhatupadhyaya2003@yahoo.co.in, upadhyayaprabhat@gmail.com

Pooja Kaim

2006-02-25T00:32:00.002+05:30

Pooja Kaim
Date of Birth: 7th Aug
Permanent Address:
A-2/72 , Paschim Vihar, New Delhi
Permanent Phone No.: 011 - 25276109
Emails: mailto:Id:poojakaim@gmail.com

Parthsarthi Mishra

2006-02-25T00:32:00.001+05:30

Parth Sarthi Mishra
Date of Birth:20th January 1979
Permanent Address:
Shivam, 84, Gandhinagar,Boring road, patna
Permanent Phone No.: 09835447221( dad's), 0612-5525982,2529964
Emails: yourparth@gmail.com, mailto:yourparth@gmail.com,mishraparth@gmail.com
Mobile: 09826358671

Paramjyoti Chattopadhyay

2006-02-25T00:32:00.000+05:30

Paramjyoti Chattopadhyay
Date of Birth: 13.10.1979
Permanent Address:
4, Pankajini Chatterjee Road, Kolkata-700033
Permanent Phone No.: 033-24240965/033-24242591
Emails: param_13@iifm.ac.in, pchattopadhyay@gmail.com
Mobile: 09826059710

Mukul Kumar

2006-02-25T00:19:00.000+05:30

Mukul Kumar
Date of Birth: 20/07/1982

Permanent Address:
CD -695(OHC), Russian Hostel Complex, Sector-2,
Heavy Engineering Corporation, Dhurwa, Ranchi-834004
Permanent Phone No.:+91-651-2440616
Emails: mailto:Id:mukulkumar.jain@gmail.com
Mobile: 09826655652

Memories of Kalpataru

2006-02-24T19:32:00.000+05:30

After a short break..rather a small pause..I am continuing to express my views in this beautiful world of words. This would be one of the finest blogs I have ever posted cause they are the sweet experiences that I have gained at IIFM. To start with- Kalpataru- 2006 is the recent festival that I have attended with all the zeal and enthusiasm. Well, I had to travel for 20 hrs to attend the fest at the cost of my health. The very first day, when I entered the campus, I heard the news of One minute show that was to be held in 20 min. Just to participate in that, I had to get fresh in 15 minutes...and finally I was in the competetion room. Well, I was received by all of my dear iifmites heartily..I can never forget this..I was greeted by each and everybody who saw me in the campus..and I felt very happy to see people remebering one and wishing you inspite of their hectic shcedules..this was one of the finest moments at iifm.

Later during the one minute show, I had crossed the first level..and also second level..and then came the monster third level..where I had to twist my tongue...The word I was given---OONT OONCHI- OONT KI POONCH OONCHI- OONCHI POONCH OONT KI- Man, I really had to fight to pronounce it, and finally gave it up..But the hall was all the way laughing to their hearts after seeing my struggle to pronounce it..anyways..let me lose the game..but I could enthrall the audience for a while which is more than enough for me...

The next was singing competetion...Hmmm now I didnt have any songs, as I have kept my dairy at my home..So, I started surfing the net and chose some inetersting songs..after seeing the bigshots in the hall, I couldn't dare enough to participate. But still thought of giving it a try..finally my name was called..and I was holding the mic..God, I have started singing but atlast I could not catch the scale..the memories of my performance on stage and in All India Radio were smothering me, as I was performing pathetically. Finally I gave a nod and stopped singing and returned back to my seat...Well still some of my fans appreciated my performance (Probably they dont want me to see crying)!! Guys thanks for your appreciation!!!!!!

And now the D Day has come...Myself and very best buddies Aru and Trayee were all gearing up to present ourselves in the function. We cladded in glittering saris and tried all cosmetics on our faces.....Ofcourse, we received beautiful complements..and nobody dared to comment us..So, finally we were in the audience seats..and were enjoying the performances by pfm batches, faculty members and small kids...I was cherishing my memories of my school and college where I had to sing a song and perform a dance on the D Days...it was like a must for me..and I performed on the stage for nearly 15 yrs..This is the first time, I was in the audience seat and enjoyed the whole programe...

Atlast I would end up my boring writing with a few words (ofcourse written by me)

THOUGH ROCKS ARE THERE- WAVES CONTINUE THEIR JOURNEY

THOUGH MOUNTAINS ARE THERE- RAIN CONTINUES TO FALL

THOUGH HURDLES ARE THERE- LET US CONTINUE TO GLITTER...

My wishes to all the pfm 2006 guys who will be now jobholders and the most responsible citizens of this nation...

Guys!!!!! rock the world and keep the campus's name high...............

Kalpataru-2006

2006-02-19T14:58:00.000+05:30

Kalpataru-2006 culminated on Friday Night with the cultural programs.Some pics...

PFM 2006 Cricket Team With GOLD

A Fabulous Skit "Rail ka Dabba" By PFM 2007

Skit "Sadachaar ka Tabeez" by PFM 2006

Ending with "..Hum to saat rang hai"

All Photos: Sanjay Prasad, PFM 2007

Updates....

2006-02-15T20:07:00.000+05:30

Could not write here anything since long...seems other mates were also too busy( reasons may be placement fever, tight schedule or simple laziness..anyway, updates on some of the happenings in the campus ....

Placements were as per expectations (excellent ;))...almost over...still some organisations coming...most of the people have 2 or more offers in their kitty :)

IIFM celebrated its Silver Jubilee Foundation Day on 6th February...It is really pround to be a part of the institution which has completed 25 years of its journey and has established itself as one of the best in th sector....Congratulations to all current and past faculty, alumni and all other members of IIFM fraternity for the achievement.

IIFM becomes the member of Bhopal Chapter of SPIC-MACAY...that means we will now be hosting various cultural events which are organised by SPIC-MACAY, at IIFM campus. Started with a puppet and Jazz show by a Norwaygeon Group on 8th Feb. and really, this was one of the best show i have ever watched....

And its celebration time again. Celebrating yearly week-long annual fest Kaplataru from 13th-17th February....so the campus at present is abuzz with all kinds of sports, cultural and literary activities...

Now the sad part...2006 batch is on the verge of finishing their time at campus. We are finishing our course on 28th Feb....and will be leaving for a short break before we join our repective organisations and start new phase of our lives....Though most of us will be here for convocation whih is scheduled in March.

Images From SPIC-MACAY Night(8 Feb)

Photos By: Sanjay Prasad, PFM 2007

PFM 2006 - List of Students

2006-02-13T18:46:00.000+05:30

The PFM 2006 Batch

Abhishek Anand
Abhishek Chaudhary
Akhand Tiwari
Akshai Abraham
Alok Kashyap
Amit Bajaj
Anil Kumar Singh
Anup Singh
Aparupa Chatterjee
Ashirbad Das
Avijit Kishore
Bhaskar Lakshakar
Dipender Sharma
Jaspal Shakya
Jyotilata Pegu
Madhusree Sarker
Manoj M
Michelle Thomas
Mukul Kumar
Nalini Beck
Nitin Bagla
Nitu Goel
Paramjyoti Chattopadhay
Parthasarthi Mishra
Pooja Kaim
Prabhat Upadhaya
Priyank Pradeep
Pushkar Parashar
Rahul Kumar Singh
Ranjan Kumar
Richa
Rohit Toppo
Ruchi Tripathi
Samvatsar Mandar
Santosh Singh
Saurabh Kumar
Shashi Ranjan
Shyam Patro
Subhash Das
Subhendu Ghorami
Subhrajyoti Saha
Swapan Mehra
Ushnish Chattopadhaya
Virender Sikanaya

Friends always Help

2006-01-14T22:20:00.000+05:30

The placements in campuss are almost over and now the no of offers per student is increasing ie everybody is having a job in his/her kitty and more companies are cominmg. As far am concerned I was disppointed on the very first day but next Sun came with smiles and I was through. Similarly all of us had Sun's favor one day or other. partying out and enjoying rest of the stay in campuss has already started. Mid term xams are on and still I donot remember where are all the notes, probably for the first time during my stay in IIFM. The CIS stuff is also unable to exert any stress this time......................

Donot know but am very desperate to write one of my experiences today when we were dinning out (one in the chain of parties scheduled). It was like dream come true..............., I will go little back to my 10+2 days, those days really determined my future, me and my friend (my best friend ever "Rakesh") never took studies seriuosly and dreamt of lives with Girlfriends ( It was very late when we got that both have same dream girl). Spot near railwayline was the favourite one, and with the number of trains passing by our dreams flourished.

Now the dream ................................. with all of knowledge of girlfriends and life after we always thought of fighting with respective girlfriends over silly matters just to make life a bit salty so that more of sugar can be added.............. :-). so for what to fight for...... the GFs are now graduated to wives and we would fight over a movie to watch, place to go, and cuisine for dinner, lady in offices....................

thanx a lot for dream come true (for the lady and gentleman responsible)............. Friends really help.

May god keep you together always..................... amen

Happy New Year

2006-01-01T20:43:00.000+05:30

Wishing whole IIFM fraternity a very Happy, Cheerful and Prosperous New Year
May God bless you and your all Dreams be fullfilled

Congrats..

2005-12-24T17:40:00.000+05:30

Brilliant performance by Swapan, Param and Akshai grabbed the first prize and Ratul and team for grabbing third prize at Tiger Quiz held at Bhopal. Congrats.

My days in Pradan Part II

2005-12-15T16:24:00.000+05:30

Hmmm…starting from where I had left in my previous post (My days in PRADAN-1), I must discuss the town Sironj. Well, it is a small town, which was earlier a part of the Tonk State during the pre independence era. District Sironj was a part of Rajasthan State after independence. It was one of the strangest districts of independent India, as it was a part of Rajasthan, yet it was surrounded from all sides by Madhya Pradesh. This situation continued till 1956, when, under the state re organization act, it was merged in the state of Madhya Pradesh and was demoted from a district to a tehsil (block headquarter).

As during the Tonk days, Sironj was governed by a Nawab, the character of the town has a characteristic Muslim tinge in it. May be about 40% population of Sironj town would be Muslim, and it one of the big Muslim education centers in India, with pupil from various parts of the country as well as from abroad coming to Sironj to get Islamic education. There are a number of Muslim buildings-mosques, madrasas and dargaahs, as well as some old graveyards here. Contrary to other similar cities, Sironj is known for its record of communal harmony. This town is dominated by traders and businessmen –Muslims, Hindus and Jains, and it is in their interest that there should be peace in the area, as the business is the first casualty in any strife.

The Market- Agarbah!

The main nerve center of the town is a market road, which, after encroachments and all, is hardly 14-15 feet wide and it runs through right at the center of the town. It contains shops of all kinds-clothes, grocery, general stores, ornaments, money lenders, traders, bicycle shops, iron smith shop, spice shops, shoe stores, paan shops, small eating joints, medical shops, electronics shops- and so on.

The most characterstic thing about this market is its three tier shops. There are some that are almost on the footpath, their main portion under the ground and only some part above the ground, others that are about 4 feet above the ground, just above these underground shops and still others, that are about 10-12 feet above the ground level. It is said that this market catered to three kinds of customers in past- common people on foot, warriors and officers on the horseback and royalities and big traders who were on elephant back and the heights of the shops were set accordingly.

There is a local haat on every Friday (or Juma, the Muslim weekly Holiday on which grand prayers were said). On Fridays, the villagers from all across Sironj, roughly 200 villages come to this market for their shopping of the edible oil, salt, spices and some vegetables- things of daily consumption that are not freely available in their villages. During Fridays, the market is so crowded that you find it difficult to walk in , forget about driving. This market anyways did not support the four wheelers much for the driving. The day I saw it first was most probably a Friday, and looking at this market bustling with villagers-on feet, on bicycles, bikes and tractors, the ladies clad in long veils (ghoonghat), with the old men wearing big turbans of fluroscent green, orange or maroon, the whole of market full of the smell of chillies, spices, sweat and smoke from the bidis of the villagers, I immediately exclaimed –“Agarbah!” – being reminded about the famous market city of the Arabian Nights as shown on the Alladin of Disney. From that time onwards, I called it Agarabah, atleast with my colleaugues, who would understand the context.

Haunted Ruins

Immediately after joining PRADAN, I shifted in with Anant, a PRADAN colleague from Orissa. When I reached his place first day of my joining, after crossing many a streets covered with the flagstone, with open drains and goats as the traffic signals, we stopped near a decrepit old building, a haveli, which was next to another one-which was in ruins. I looked at him in disbelief when he told that I am supposed to live with him in this.

Although I am not a frequent flyer in Ghost airways- I mean I have not witnessed them very often but still, I went inside with a slightly high heartbeat. As we climbed up through a narrow staircase, my heartbeat increased. There was no railing on the stairs. As we reached the second floor, he showed me the kitchen and his living room. I tried to be comfortable in the surroundings, and approached one of the closed windows on the wall. I opened it to find that it led to the balcony outside. I then proceeded to the next window on the same wall, which was similar to this was in all senses. When I opened it, I was jolted to see that there was a small tunnel like thing that led to some place downwards.

Eeeeeeek!!!!!

I was afraid of this place-which seemed to me more like a set of Sahib-bibi aur Ghulam or Gumnaam- the horror-thriller movies of the bygone days! Anyhow, I spent the night there. Next morning, I asked Anant for the wash room, and he asked me to go to the balcony. “Washroom in the balcony? Have you gone nuts, man?” But that was it.

On the far end of the balcony there was an enclosed chamber called the toilet. When I went in, I found, to my horror, that my face was above the upper portion of the door, and so it was visible to someone in the balcony while I was busy in my daily chores! So, I could either dump my face down between my legs or let any onlooker to analyze the expressions on my face which I was in the loo!

There was an even more, when I reached the bath room to take a shower. I found myself in the ‘bathroom’ of the decrepit haveli. It was nothing more than two tin doors fixed in the balcony with a gap of about 4 feet. For taking bath, you need to leash both of them to the wall of the balcony. However, while you taking the bath, if the breeze blew a bit too much, the doors would open and you would be there, taking bath in a balcony, with a full Monty spectacle to not just the ghosts of the haveli, but also the common public in and around the haveli!

It was not long that we ran away from there, to find another, more suitable abode for ourselves!

The Office and the PRADAN Staff

PRADAN Office in Sironj is I think the next important office after that of the SDM. Most of the villagers know about it and it has become some kind of a meeting place for the villagers who come for the weekly haat at Sironj on Fridays. It is so interesting, you can find unknown people sleeping in the hall of the office on the dari (the rug) in the second half of the office. We used to feel irritated initially but later on when we came to know that most of the poor guys came walking from villages that were more than 15 kms away at times, we never used to disturb them. For them, it was like their home- they would sit there, discuss things, settle disputes and to seek help from us. Their affection became evident on such occasions.

When Sun starts to set, these guys would slowly get going out of the office and would take the dusty paths through the fields, forests and hillocks back to there small huts in the distant villages.

We sometimes used to compare our office with the government offices, where the babudom does not let the People, whom servant they are, to sit next to them on a chair. A poor man coming from a village deep inside the hinterland has to either keep standing while running pillar to post in a government office or after a while has to squat on the dirty floor of the office in the most derogatory fashion. In PRADAN, it is very clear that the villager would be seated on the same height that the PRADAN Executive Director would get while on a visit to any office. If there were 2-3 villagers, the PRADAN professional would offer them a chair next to him. If there were more people, the professional would request them to sit on the rug on the floor of the hall and take some space on the same rug to sit with them. This was tought to me once by a Tribal in a village deep inside the forest in Garhchirolli, Maharashtra. He told me that till the time we sit on the same level, we are partners, the moment you sit on the chair and I on the ground, you become the boss, and I, the subordinate. This was the single most important feature in PRADAN that made it different from other offices.

PRADAN is full of qualified people from diverse back grounds. It has got an elaborate system of recruitment of the Professionals from about 70 odd educational institutions across the country through a rigorous process of Campus recruitment. The people joining PRADAN are Post Graduates barring the Engineers and B.Sc (Agriculture).

When I joined PRADAN Sironj, it had one B.Tech (Agriculture), One MSW, One M.Sc (Agriculture). Within three months of my joining, there were two more fellows- Madhukar- B.Tech Agriculture guy from PAU and Shabana- a MA (Extension Education) girl from Jamia Millia Islamia. Such a mix of people in the team in a remote area where the outsiders were almost always less qualified vis-à-vis the educational qualification, always promoted a lot of intellectual discussion, thinking and what we called reflections of individuals. I don’t think there was a better intellectual stimulus to me as compared to the initial one year in PRADAN where as an apprentice you are supposed to learn from the work that you do.

The girl that I met on my first day in PRADAN Sironj was actually not from there. She was a summer trainee from Goa Institute of Management, Goa and was there for a period of about 2 months. In PRADAN summer trainees keep coming for some or the other project and whoever spends sometime here even for 2 months with an open mind and a spirit of learning, carries some everlasting impact on their lifestyle and thought process for rest of his/her life. The best part is the sensitivity towards the poor rural community.

My initial impression on the team members, particularly one of my senior colleagues Arpana, was not at all very good. Because of my urbane' appearances and happy go lucky attitude, she considered me to be a ‘hero’ who will pack his bags soon. Nevertheless, not withstanding the initial impressions, I received a very fair treatment from all, very supportive and almost kid gloved one. She is now the second in command in PRADAN Sironj, with very strong presence in the team and became one of the sources of strength for me later on. She got married to Ankur, of my senior batch in IIFM (who is also working in PRADAN Sironj) and they have been recently blessed with a baby boy!

The most remarkable role was that of Bhabhi (wife of Ashok, our Team Leader). She was like the mother to whole of the team. Despite living in such a remote place where there were no proper facilities for the education or health of her kids- Ankur and Aman (both of them were very naughty, yet very sweet), She supported Ashok and rest of the team with her dignified and reassuring presence in the team. Although she was a housewife, but at a number of instances, she played a important role in the team, as important as her husband, the Team Leader. She was the one who balanced the pragmatism of Ashok in the team with care and affection.

Then there was Sulakshana- the champion of gender issues. I have not seen a stronger lady in my life with such a devotion to the cause of uplifting the women –particularly those from the nomadic and tribal community. She worked with Banjara, Gond and Bagdi tribal groups in some very remote places where even the male colleagues in PRADAN would not feel very comfortable initially. A steadfast feminist that she was, she would not let any male colleague drive her bike when accompanying her, and would be provoked for a heated debate on slightest comment on the women. She was the champion of SHGs in PRADAN Sironj and some of the SHGs made by her proved to be longest surviving in PRADAN Sironj.

Ashok, the Team Leader was my Field Guide during the apprenticeship days. He was a B.Tech (Agriculture) from PUSA and was working with PRADAN for about 8 years when I joined it in 2002. I don’t think that I have learnt more from anybody else about the development sector than Ashok. The kind of interactive sessions that we had just after I joined was really phenomenal. The handholding of the novices like myself by Ashok as a Field Guide was really the USP of the apprenticeship program in PRADAN. He was a kind of Godfather to most of us.

(To be continued)
Contributed by Prashant Mishra (http://prashantmishra1.blogspot.com/)

2005-11-16T22:54:00.000+05:30

अभी कुछ दिनों पहले सोच रहा था कि OT-2 खतम होने के बाद, छात्र जीवन का कितना सा हिस्सा शेष रह जायेगा...मात्र २-३ महीने में पूरी दुनिया बदलने वाली है...वो हास्टल की मस्ती,दोस्तों से 'बकर', क्लास की नींद, सब कुछ पीछे छूट जायेगा...

IIFM जिन्दगी का कितना अहम हिस्सा बन गया है, इसका अहसास अभी तब हुआ जब मैं करीब एक महीने तक चार राज्यों की खाक छानने के बाद,उदयपुर वापसी के समय एक दिन (८-१० घन्टे)के लिये भोपाल रुका...was just feeling like home coming...दोस्तों से मिला(जिनकी OT भोपाल में ही थी), मेस का नाश्ता और खाना भी बहुत अच्छा लगा...

खैर , अभी OT का अन्तिम चरण चल रह है..२-३ दिन गुजरात और जाना है और फिर रिपोर्ट लिखनी है...५ दिसम्बर को फिर मिलेंगे IIFM में...अलविदा...:)

My days in PRADAN Part 1

2005-10-18T11:31:00.000+05:30

My days in PRADAN-Part 1

How it all got started
It was a dusty day of April 2002 when I started off from Bhopal for Sironj in Vidisha district of Madhya Pradesh, where I had been recruited by PRADAN to work as an Executive. I had just passed out from IIFM, Bhopal after completing my PGDFM from there in March. It was on day minus one of the placements in IIFM that I got through for PRADAN. (PRADAN came for recruitment a day earlier than scheduled). I was keen on joining a grassroots NGO because firstly I wanted some good first hand experience of working with the community directly and then I used to feel indebted due to the money that the government spent over me while in IIFM. I had imagined that it would be a well to do place. After all, it was only 120 kms. from Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. Vidisha is also connected by train but I had seen in the map that Sironj is somewhat away from the railway line. “So what?'- I had thought- “ 40kms is nothing. I can cover that much within 45 minutes and get aboard a train for home”. But that was not to be, as I later found out.
Daydreaming
As we started off from Berasia bus stand in Bhopal, on a bus labeled Non-stop, I was full of excitement. After all, it was my first job that I was going to join! I had so many visualizations about the place. I always used to imagine a one storied building, on the side of a highway (like PRADAN Office in Kesla is) and I used to think that it would be like a flat (like the Office of Amhi Amachya Arogyasathi-an NGO in Garhchirolli, Maharshtra where I had visited before). I kept thinking about the work that I would do, and kept thinking about how I would use the studies that I had carried out in IIFM.
Harsh Realities
While I was thinking the bus covered the good patch of about 40 kms of the road to Sironj. We crossed Bearasia and voila! The bus became a roller coaster ride, jumping and jerking over a road so full of potholes that I was reminding me of the surface of moon full of craters that I had seen in the National Geographic! I could not believe that roads just 40 km out of the state capital and that too in the constituency of the brother of the Chief Minister Dig Vijay Singh can be that bad.
The tire goes boom!
But, I was soon to realize that it was just a beginning. Soon, the passengers and the luggage were falling on each other alike. The bus was already overloaded but 'the beginner's luck' described in the Alchemist had ensured that I get a window seat and get enough oxygen along with the dust to remain conscious to register the unprecedented travel in my life. There came a bridge on a river (Sagad-later I came to know) and right in the middle of that bridge, the rear tire of the bus went flat. I thanked my stars, not for the flat tire, but for the opportunity to get down from the bus that seemed like a cattle truck to me and become human being for a few minutes again. I looked around and found what government records and IIFM books called Forest- a thoroughly exploited scrubland in which only the stumps of once densely found teak trees were found. It looked apologetic to me, for not looking as a forest at all to me. I was looking at the vegetables sown in the riverbed under the bridge, that the conductor of the bus started calling everybody on board. I was surprised at the speed with which they had replaced the flat tire with the spare one. Later a co passenger told me that it is so common in a day that the conductor and the cleaner have become experts in that particular activity.
BachaoBachao! I am kidnapped!
We moved a little ahead, and I realized that suddenly the bus has left the road and is traversing through someone's field, which, it being post harvest season was devoid of any vegetation. The bus was going away from the road, deeper and deeper in the fields and I was trying to understand what the poor devil is up to. A point came when the road could not be seen anymore and this guy is driving the bus right to the fringes of the forest, in the fields. I thought that some one has hijacked the bus, and all the passengers including yours truly have been taken hostage. I knew that I was going to join a grass-root organization and that it will definitely not pay a single penny in ransom for me, because at that point of time, they did not even know how I looked like. I looked around to see the reaction of the co passengers. Most of them had a exasperated look on their face- the face smeared with sweat, dust and the smoke- but none of them had the bewildered look that I carried on my face. They were looking sympathetically at me and I was not able to understand how these guys can keep their cool. By that time, the bus had left the fields and was deep inside the scrubland called forest. We were going through the forest tracks used by the head loaders and illegal wood cutters and the forest staff who was earning no better.
Now, this was a bit too much for me. I poked my elbow in the ribs to the co-passenger sleeping (miraculously!) besides me.
"Haan?"-he enquired, angrily on being taken out of his bumpy siesta, "What is it?"
"Bhai Saheb"- I said, trying to pacify his discomfort of being woken up in middle of a beautiful dream, may be-" Aap ko kuch gad bad nahin lag raha hai?" ( Don't you find something amiss?)
He looks up and down, right and left, and then says-"What?"
"Look around", I said- “we are in the middle of nowhere, and I think there is something terribly wrong".
"Yes it is", he says- "even the forest tracks and wheat fields of Madhya Pradesh are better than the roads that the state has!"
Bach Gaye!
True to his words, I saw the bus again changing its course, this time away from the forest and the fields and after another 15 minutes we were back again on the road, but in order to avoid the small stretch of 15 kms of absolutely horrible road (other patches are plainly horrible- there are degrees of horrible roads in M.P.!) we had spent close to one hour, going through the forests and the fields. It was my first experience of the vehicles leaving the highway and treading on the forest and the fields, courtesy Shri Dig Vijay Singh, then Chief Minister, Madhya Pradesh (his eccentric competitor, Uma Bharti gave a controversial statement later that year before the elections for MP Assembly in which she said that the public of MP would thrash Dig Vijay Singh government by dumping it in the potholes of the roads- and so it did!)
Aa hi pahuche apni manjil pe!
Finally, spending each second in the fond remembrance of the roads of Char Imli, the abode of the bureaucrats in Bhopal, where even the side lanes (meant for the mighty pets of the burra sahebs) are comparable with the Western Express Highway between Mumbai and Poona, I approached the Sironj town. Surprisingly, the bus was still in one piece (congratulations TELCO!). I saw a good building, which heightened up my spirits of finding more such buildings in my abode for next few years. It was a hospital, perched on the plateau that overlooks Sironj town. The next moment our bus was going down the plateau to reach the bus stand of Sironj. I got down and many autowallahs surrounded me at the very instant.
"Kahan jaana hai, Sir?'- asked one.
"PRADAN Office", I said.
"Where?"- pat came the reply.
"Above Khargosh Bidi factory"-I tried to explain.
"Accha accha. Pradhan walon ke yahan jaana hai? Chaliye!" – he said, to my relief.
"PRADHAN? As in Mukhiya of the Village? Interesting!"- I could not hide my grin.
The autowallah shrugged. I got into the auto, put my luggage- An air bag and a sleeping bag- in the back and we drove off. We were crossing through roads covered with the flag stone- something that I had not seen for a long time since I went in some very interior, old streets of my home town, Rewa. Between the flagstone, there were the drains, open ones, about 3 inches wide and 5 inches deep from individual houses to the main drain that ran parallel to the road. These smaller drains had flagstone sidings and so one can actually drive a vehicle over it, without damaging either the vehicle or the drain. Also, it is very convenient for the sweepers to clean the open drains. I looked around-Old, decrepit buildings-crumbling havelis, small fortresses- it was clear that I have arrived into a part of history studded with remains of the past.
My first Impression of PRADAN
I was looking around, when the autorickshaw stopped."Aa gaya, Sir"-announced the autowallah."Kitna"- I said, getting out of the auto with my luggage."Beis"-said he."Accha! Kuch jyada nahin hai yeh?"-I said mockingly, while taking out my wallet."Yahan itna hi lagta hai"-said he, bitterly. "Ok"- I said, giving him the bill-"here you go!" Pocketing it, he drove off without saying a word. I sighed in relief of having reached there, finally. I looked around. I was in the middle of a street, between a one storied building and a small shack, in front of which a white male goat was tied, chomping his grass. It was a four mill, an atta chakki. I looked at the one storied building for any signs of PRADAN or Pradhan as they called it. On the balcony I noticed a small white board with the logo of PRADAN.
''There you are"-I told myself. Holding my bags, one on my shoulders, other in my hands, I looked for a staircase. Having found one on the left, I decided to climb. It was a fight of about 15 stairs and I found myself in front of the office, which was going to be my Karambhoomi (the theatre of action) for next few year. I treaded cautiously. I peeped in the office- there was a big hall, and a wall after two thirds of the length of the hall. Built only for 6 feet, it was more of a partition then a permanent structure. The hall was empty, but I could hear voices of some people talking. I looked around and found a shelf in the wall, just after the entrance. There was a packing box for computer.
"Wonderful!"- I thought- "Atleast one can watch movies by getting some CDs here". (Later on, my expectations proved to be misplaced, because this was an old 486 kind of computer, sightly more modern- on which even ms Word would not run properly, forget about a video CD. Anyways, there was no CD drive in this box of a computer!)
"Hmmmm" - I said, looking at the charts put on the wall. These were all in Hindi, about the various activities like SHGs, agriculture etc. I the mean time I could hear a female voice, as I closed in to the partitioned part of the office. I decided to surprise the people at the other end. I entered the room with my bags on my shoulders and came face to face with a good looking, spectacled female of about my age.
"Hi!"- I said- "I am Prashant, and I have come here to join you guys!"
Oye-Hoye
She looked at me with a bewildered look and then said -"Hi! Have you come here on a two month summer training program? "-looking at the little luggage I was carrying over my shoulders.
"No", I said, "I am here to join PRADAN as an employee".
"Really? But looking at your luggage, I thought you are here for a short period of time" She said.
"I don't need much luggage to sustain myself"- I told her- "and in any case I would be going back to Bhopal to get my books and all!"
"Ok"- she said, "Let me introduce you to the others.” She took me to the other corner of the office.
"Here"-she told a middle aged person on a s-chair- "He is Ashokji, he is our Team Leader, and Ashokji, he is Prashant, he has come to join PRADAN."
"Welcome!"-said the Team Leader.
(to be continued.................................)

Contributed by Prashant Mishra PFM 2000-02
Originally posted at http://prashantmishra1.blogspot.com/