Dubai Diaries

A sneak peek for the world outside into the ways of life at S P Jain Centre of Management at Dubai and Singapore and what goes behind the scenes to make it happen!!

It is now a little more than two months since we landed in Dubai (8 June 2006 to be precise). On one hand, it feels like ages for we’re going through one of the busiest phases of our lives and on the other hand it doesn’t seem to be anywhere even close to two months at all, thanks again to the rigors that ensure a steep learning curve. Time just seems to fly by at SPJCM… We’re already on our way to becoming lifetime friends, not to mention building networks. In this latest update we try to describe how a typical day is spent at the Dubai campus (the update from Singapore will follow soon).

A typical day begins at 7 AM, with classes starting as early as 8 AM. The early morning rush to get ready for college is something that deserves mention over here. Mathematically speaking, the speed of getting ready is inversely proportional to the time left for boarding the college bus. :-) The necessity of boarding the bus becomes the mother that helps us discover our hidden potential. In fact, some amongst us have become experts in the art of getting from bed to bus in five minutes flat. God bless the inventor of Deodorants! And then there are some more running to board the bus, with laptop in one hand, belt in mouth and tucking the shirt in with the other hand giving us a live lesson in multitasking that we learn outside our classes.

Classes are a completely different story though. The exhaustion and rustiness suddenly vanish into thin air as we hear of ‘surprise Pre-class Quiz.’ Post Quiz, we get to see some ‘excellent Class Participation (CP)’ which in some cases borders on Desperate CP to earn some brownie points. At this point, we must add that the faculty flown in from SP Jain Mumbai does a commendable job of teaching us and more importantly keeping us awake through their interactive sessions.

Typically classes end by 5 PM. Occasionally; however, we’ve guest lectures by industry stalwarts after the classes as a part of Visiting Wisdom Sessions. Whether external wisdom visits us or not, the professors ensure that we get wiser every single day.

Hey Wait! You thought this is it? Boy! This is just the beginning. In fact, the real fun starts now! For now comes the Herculean task of completing the pending assignments, presentations and reports due for the next day… And by the time you leave the institute to head back home (the villas), it’s already 11:30 PM. You can’t leave any later for that is the last bus. But that is just an interval in the long movie on our typical day. In the villas too, it is not abnormal to see people discussing and studying until 1.30 or later. Thereafter you crash into the bed and flake out into oblivion…

A few more such days and we hit a weekend, full of hope for recharging our batteries. Our weekend is Sunday & Monday, the two days dedicated for the Special Group Project (SGP) with companies like Microsoft, TCS, Infosys, Emirates Bank and many others.

Truly, time just seems to fly by. We’re two months old cohort and we’ve just three more months left before we end our tryst with Dubai and move on to Singapore. There is, however, much more midnight oil to be burnt before we take the break and many dunes of wakefulness to cross before we reach the oasis of sleep.

Soft Skills ...

Soft Skills kill ...
but they do not fit my bill

Two and a half term papers ...
Make my attention taper

Now brain dead ...
Today please .. please ... lessen my dread !

College Lectures - I never conquered

I came.

I saw.

I heard.

I slept.
They quizzed,
I wept.

-Kamlesh Acharya & Amardeep Grover Entertainment Co.

First Week at SP Jain Dubai

When dreams turn to reality, the first reaction is of disbelief. Then comes the realization that you’re experiencing what you’d always dreamt of. And yet, the feeling is mixed. The ecstasy is overruled by fear; a fear that you somehow don’t belong to the place – a fear of failure; what if you don’t prove yourself from hereon?

It’s a proud feeling to be chosen to represent some of the brighter brains and smarter people of the lot. And yet, it is a humbling feeling; humbling - for no matter how smart you’re - you always have someone smarter than you here. No matter how intelligent you’re, there is always someone more intelligent than you here. Every brain has a better half here. Every pride meets its vanquisher here. Every wit has a repartee here.

I had always dreamt of doing an MBA from a premier B-school. After quite a few years of toil and unsuccessful attempts at entrance exams, I made it to SP Jain Dubai. Having worked with IT industry for a few years, I had seen IT industry from close quarters. Through projects, products and consulting, I had seen IT vertical at the micro level. I now wanted to work at the macro level. I was sick and tired of being directed by the organization; I now wanted to direct the way the organization went.

I left my home in India on my birthday. That might not seem too emotional a farewell until you know that I was spending my first birthday in ten years with my family. As fate would have it, I just couldn’t have left a day later – or earlier – as the session was starting soon thereafter.

So here I was in Dubai; dreaming, like everyone else, and visualizing how it all is going to turn out. The next day, Sudeep Jain, my batch mate, took me to the college and then to the hostel which actually is a villa.

Then started the real nightmare. I was the first person to arrive in the by-now-infamous ‘blue’ villa. The villa was being readied for the students who were to arrive that night and the preparation were running late even for them; I arrived that afternoon. I entered the premises of the villa to a shocking sight of carpenters and labourers going about their business. If it were not for the girls accompanying me to show me the way to the villa, my entry would not have surprised many and I would’ve been mistaken for another labourer at best or would’ve had to share their load at worst. I felt like a chief guest who arrived for the function before time. After a few hours of moving around like a zombie, I got some water to drink and freshen up. By late evening a group of about forty guys arrived in the villa and it suddenly was not a bad place to be in.

But that by no means was the end of villa ‘blues’. For more than a week we had a torrid time in the restrooms. I once had to ask my roommate to pass me drinking water bottles so I could wash the soap foam after the shower had so dramatically stopped when I needed it most. Restrooms were never the reason we prayed so hard. Luckily the prayers were answered and water never played truant when I was on the closet. The sale of deodorants in the adjoining grocery had suddenly seen a spurt. But thanks to our woes, I learnt some early lessons in economics – outside of my class: The increase in sale of a commodity may not always be due to excellent strategies of companies but due to unexpected exigencies of totally unrelated societal dynamics.

Our dean Mr. Vijay Sethi had, on our first orientation day, told us – perhaps very intentionally – to look at the bigger picture and ignore the teething problems. This advice stood us in good stead, for the administration issues put a shoddy picture in the initial week but the professors at the same time were excellent to say the least. I didn’t get worked up for I wondered what my condition would be had it been the other way round.

The professors at SP Jain Dubai need a mention here. They are sincerity and commitment personified. This stands true atleast for those we’ve seen in this short span. I was talking to an alumna the day I arrived at SP Jain and she told me that the best thing about this place are the professors. And I thanked heavens. A man of knowledge is of no use if he doesn’t know how to impart knowledge. The assignments, tests and group works ensure that we keep awake till late in the night. We have pre-session tests that ensure we read our stuff so there is a better class participation. But that also means, we’re kept on tenterhooks.

The other day I asked my roommate, “How many days we’ve been together?”
We both were shocked to realize that it had been only three days since the classes started. And it looked like we hadn't slept for ages.

I was to learn another management lesson the hard way. My earlier stint here in Dubai got me in touch with a few good caterers. I approached one of them to deliver food in the campus. He charged a very reasonable Dhs 5 a meal. It so turned out that he delivered so much in one meal that we ended up sharing the meal. There was such a downpour of people taking the meal that a lot of those who paid had no meal left for them. I started supervising the distribution but to no avail. I did not take lunch for two days so others who had paid could eat. It took me three days to realize the discrepancy and solve the problem. Now the students eat a meal at Dhs 2.5 which by all means is cheaper than what we get in India. I struck a golden deal for them; the flip side of this achievement was that I became so famous for food management that I was hand-picked for food committee instead of the ones I would’ve loved to be a part of.

Just as I’m writing this article, I get a mail asking the food committee to meet. My feet just can’t get ready to move on. And I plod away wondering at my predicament…

I take refuge in the thought that God doesn’t always give you what you want, but He sure gives you what you need; and I be happy - as is my wont…

Handing over the baton

Hi all,
The new batch has arrived and this batch of 2005, which will never be succeeded as ours was the last PGDM batch, has joined the corporate world and we hope to shake it. The GMBA batch has arrived in Dubai and Singapore will be starting from the 1st of July. I would like you guys to be introduced to the new guy in charge for this blog (obviously we will be pitching in too like guest columnists). I admit we did not do well to maintain this blog. So, I hope this new batch does it and I am sure they will do it very well.

The responsibility of this blog now resides solely on the shoulders of Kamlesh Acharya, who is the first guy from the GMBADXB06 batch (ya, thats what they call the batch which is in dubai right now) who expressed an interest in running this blog, so thanks to him I did not have to find a scapegoat and thrust the responsibility on that person.

Kamlesh runs his own blog - Mind Monologues. Do visit it.

So, this is Venkatesh, PGDM A 063, batch of 2005, S P Jain Center of Management, Dubai signing off as the chief blogger for this blog. I would like to thank my batchmates who were part of this.

Ciao and here is a toast for a new beginning!!!!

RG!!!

We are back to the same LC's (Learning Center's), same villas, same KV, same food. I thought it would be fun if people could know some of the jargon we use here. And I will start with the biggest Daddy of them all .... RG..

RG stands for Relative Grading which is what we follow here in SPJCM. Relative Grading can be both a boon and a bane. RG in essence means that your success is my failure. Sounds crude doesn't it? But, there are many major followers of RG and I will WITHOUT taking names showcase some of the biggest RG followers.

1) Biggest of them all: This guy is known to have switched off alarms of his villa mates so that they don't get up early in the morning to study. He has even hidden handouts of people so that they dont do their pre-readings for the class next day. This guy is known to psyche people out by shouting war like cries before the exams. He was once given a taste of his own medicine when once a guy went and woke him up around 3 am and said, "Hey, 5 minutes before the bus leaves." This guy then ran and brushed his teeth changed and found dat almost everyone was sleeping and then looked at the clock to find it was 3.10 am and no prizes for guessing, he was stark raving mad!!!

2) Smart Player: This guy belongs to the nerdy world of IT. On a recent visit to the American University at Sharjah to understand their IT infrastructure, he is known to have promised people that he would take the notes and send it to them. The assignment has been already submitted and people are still waiting for his notes to arrive by mail.

More to follow .... watch this space!!!! ;)

Applications started

Hey SPJCM aspirants,

Here is some gr8 news for you all. The applications has started . You can apply online here

Wishing you all the best of luck with your applications!!

Life @ SPJCM

Our idea of an ideal day. We come close to it but a few modifications.

Get up at 6.00 am after you have half murdered your alarm clock by pressing the snooze button repeatedly. Move to the bathroom in a daze and perform your tasks mechanically. Operations is best learnt here, when you begin to multitask a lot of things. Eat while getting dressed. And rush to make it to the 7.00am bus.

Classes begin at 8.00am and go on sometimes till late in the evening. Lunch is touched upon in between. And life begins after the classes, when you do your pre reads for the next day, finish assignments and manage to just scrape through the deadline, prepare for the tests and so on. Often it goes on into the wee hours of the morning, when we finally retire to bed.

It really depends on your outlook, some call this work, some call it nirvana and some others call it fun. But it is always a lot of fun in retrospect. When you start putting in 18 hours a day studying, attending classes, doing assignments, organising guest lectures, reading up on current affairs and the economy in general. The value addition is immense, you start living more number of hours extracting the most out of every minute.

Our Comprehensive Exams have begun

HI all,
Our Comprehensive Exams have begun, so you all of us are busy most of us would be going to India, so we will try and keep this updated.

Desert Rock Festival

A medley of thought assortions. Here goes .. Mood Indigo Arka 4 days 4 nights Parikrama Sumedha Vinayak IIT Powai Pachu Praket my first rock concert Aaakash Euphoria quizzes quizzes quizzes Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. I think I’d better stop.
The Desert Rock Festival here in Knowledge Village just transported me back in time and the trip wove the above mentioned threads into a feeling of ‘good old days’. Anyways a welcome change for everyone … from the die hard heavy metal jingoists like me to the philanderers and flirters. There was a LOT to be ogled

Two great bands. Mannikind ( good name ) and Death of Eighty ( well .. ummm .. ). I liked the former which eventually won. I personally would rate them much better than most of the Indian bands. Before the winners were announced a famous Dubai band whose name I could not quite comprehend performed a couple of numbers which had me floored. The vocalist was a taklu wearing black glasses and reminded me of R.E.M vocalist. These dudes played two original tracks “Please be my pain” and “Cause and Effect” … great songs .. not at all heavy. They were more like Metallica doing ‘Nothing Else Matters’.