2007 - Summary of an eventful year

Jan - Mar

The year started with my journey from home to Ahmedabad. I was going to start with a new group for my third term. I had heard that there was going to be a lot of group work and I hardly knew my group mates. In due course of time, their sincerity and professionalism towards work really impressed me and by the time, I left the campus for summer internship, I had won some good friends for life.

We, the new Entre team (IIMA's Entrepreneurship club) had very successfully organized the annual Venture Capitalists' Conclave at IIM Ahmedabad. Thanks to amazing efforts by Kunal (Head, CIIE), Vikas Nair, Pranay Gupta, Vijayendra, Vartika, Kaushik, Prashant, Ajay among others.


Apr-May

These two months were spent in the cosmopolitan environment of London in an enviable investment bank. I really enjoyed the support that I received from the alumni and seniors on the desk. The hours were chill and work was interesting. I am glad that unlike many others, I was not just making ppts and pushing numbers without understanding them. I could take full ownership of my work and thoroughly enjoyed it. Except the high cost of living and the tax rate, London seemed like heaven.

Jun-Aug

The fourth term had started, the regular first year classes were gone and the workload of IIMA vanished all of a sudden. I simply did not know what to do. I took in additional subjects to kill time, but to no avail. I had taken a course by Prof. Sunil Handa, "Laboratory for Entrepreneurship" - Thanks to it, I was still interested in IIMA.

The Prayaas school (IIMA school for slum children) kids had started going regularly to Sahjananda School. We were collaborating with Riverside for improving the study environment at Prayaas. Radhika and others led a good dramatics workshop for the school kids.

Sep-Nov

Things started changing for a little.

Entre Club under the leadership of Vijayendra organized the first Social Entrepreneurship event in the history of IIMA - Pratyarpana, the brainchild of Prof. Anil Gupta. We also organized the first Idea Camp at IIM Ahmedabad, in collaboration with CIIE. Thanks to Kunal, Devanshi and Charmie.

Piyush's visa got canceled and we teamed up for our course work. I still think how come we never spent time together earlier. But, it is never too late to start and I am fortunate that I got to know him during the fifth term.

I started participating in B-school contests, thanks to Gendy for taking me in Jumping Jalebis. We started with a couple of failures but the results did not matter, the team spirit did and I was truly enjoying working with this team.

In due course of time, our patience paid and the wildest of our dreams came true -

Jumping Jalebis won the Confluence Award of Excellence

December

Yes, the last month came with lots of fun. It started with ERI course in the deserts of Zainabad. The course was a lot of fun with a sight seeing trip and few good sessions on aerobics, dance and breathing exercises. It seemed to be a 6-day picnic, away from the reach of laptops and internet, in the lap of mother nature.

To add to my pleasures, Vinit won a contest at IIM Indore and Piyush, Pranav and Ankit won the TATA Business Leadership Award during this period. Though I was not present at both the occasions, I was a part of both the teams....(I know, you are thinking how lucky this free-rider can get...)

We supplemented with a visit to South East Asia - Singapore and Kuala Lampur.

A trip with tempting destinations like Sentossa Islands, the night Safari, the Genting Highlands, the KL Minar, the Petronas and the Singapore Zoo was an ideal way to end a fun-filled year.