To Sir, with love

He walks into the class just when all of us are struggling hard to stay awake. He sits on the chair with an air of  a king adorning his throne and starts shooting us with his wise anecdotes. He is none other than Prof. S. P Srinivasan, professor of finance who taught us Accounting and a lot more than that in our first term. His fan club in Orkut boasts of a staggering 900+ people. (Of course, I being one of them). Well, this was a brief introduction about one of the best teachers I have ever come across.

Right from day one, he made Accounting seem like a subject of wonder. Number-crunching is by default there but he makes it so much more enthusiastic by adding his own versions of stories,idioms and jokes.. I know a few of my batch mates do sleep in his class too but sorry guys, I can never get bored in his classes. He has captivated me with his knowledge! After he starts his lecture he consciously veers off to a different(more often, unrelated) topic altogether and at the end of the lecture we realize that he had actually covered one of the important topics in the syllabus. I am a student who has had no A, B or C of experience in Accounting  whatsoever and so I am all ears in his classes and the awe that I have for him is never going to wane away.

I am currently having a terrible allergic cough. Actually, symptoms started showing a month ago when there was a wide-spread swine flu mania, all around! BUT! Not to worry.. I cough only when the dust is looming around. So lets keep the flu at bay! Anyway, I remember myself coughing heavily in one of his classes on a  Monday morning, and what made it all the more noticeable was the fact that I was sitting on the second row, first seat. As he was going on about his lecture on Accounting suddenly he changed tracks by mentioning how people are falling ill a lot these days due to lack of proper fitness and nutrition. There he tells that and I notice all heads turning towards me  :). He told how important it is to be healthy and to play often. As he said that I suddenly felt ashamed of how low health was on my priority list. At the same time,I felt so special. He had actually noticed that I was ill. Often, it takes a classroom lecture to teach you what your parents cannot! I blamed myself rather than blaming the hostel food. I was so engulfed with tests, assignments and classes, I at times skipped breakfast and followed such erratic sleeping schedules that my fitness had started dwindling. Play till you sweat, he said! Yes sir, I shall follow it with renewed vigor from the beginning of this term. I hope my roomies aren't reading this :P

Regarding my performance in his paper, it's better left untold. But now that I mentioned it anyways, let me tell you that he threw a googly and I was bowled out! My balance sheet did match but it showed a figure which clearly looked manipulated, something which Auditing Standards would never approve of :P . And this is happening to me when I am planning to major in Finance! God save the world.

Some of his quotes which shall remain etched in my memory forever:
"Accounting is all about know-why and know-how"
"The horse will fly"
"Never anticipate profit but provide for all losses"
"MBA is all about managing yourself"
"......ACTUALLY" - This word almost ends every statement of his and the particular tone he uses this word with is just inimitable.

Sir,
The pearls of wisdom you have shared with us shall continue to adorn our lives forever.
Thank you for your unending supply of quotes.

Looking forward to more of your classes!

Home away from home!

Its been two months now. Pretty late to blog on something that happened a couple of months back but hey! You cant expect a student to blog everyday of her life :) Well, times have changed. Things too. Life is no more mundane but hectic. A day of 24hrs seems to be very short. Lack of sleep and lot of work to do. This is the life of a prospective MBA and do you hear me complaining? Well, Hostel life doesnt seem alien anymore. I am living it every moment. Besides, what's better than living in a hostel in your hometown ? My college is compulsorily residential and I get to go home on weekends, meet my old friends and I realize I still belong here. Although, its kinda funny.. to be a hosteller in your native but what the heck! Cest la vie! :)

More about life at the hostel.. I was once upon a time, the most pampered kid at home. With an elder sister and brother in law on one side who would shower me with gifts and dad and mom on the other side showing abundant love and care, I was a spoilt brat. Lazy. Unhelpful. well, I will leave you with these two adjectives for the time-being. Today I wash my clothes,I eat on time (i dont wait to be coaxed) and I cant be any happier.. Hostel-life teaches you a lot of things. You start taking care of yourself, the most important of all. You are no longer under the cosy wrap of your parents. You are out there in the world ready to live on your own. My professor says "living in hostel is in itself a way of learning to manage things.. " If you are a people's person it is your calling. You get to live with people from different backgrounds and cultures. Our college is a heady cocktail indeed with respect to languages and cultures. The fun in gossiping that we do on those night-outs of toiling during exams, making maggi in the middle of the night and fighting for every noodle strand as if we have never seen maggi.. LOL.. it is just getting better.. Trust me, these things will never come back. The moment is ours.. to live and enjoy..

Moreover, I can relate to all these even better. Having worked for 2 years, my getting back to college life is like a trip to goa. A breath of fresh air. There are strings attached however. (read exams). :P

Transition from a techie to an MBA seems very enthusing. Albeit I learnt hard core programming during my work-life, all other things seemed stagnant. My outlook on life was very narrow. I now put my brains into every subject. As one of my professors often quips, MBA is a broader understanding of how things are while others delve deeper into one specific field. Learning management primarily teaches you to manage yourself first.

To brag about how good I feel,I can only measure it by saying how busy I am. Post-classes, not one evening do we have for ourselves. You have to be on your toes, literally! There are foreign students visiting our campus every now and then. Ongoings of contests and cultural fests and a bunch of seminars. And this is only a pie of the whole cake that I have started to taste..one of my favourite teachers says "lack of sleep testifies that you are an MBA student". I just seem to be in awe of this professor of mine. Well, he needs a separate blog for himself and I dont want to deviate from the topic of discussion at the moment. :) let me give you a peek into the fields of learning. I was once a hard core math kid but today, accountancy seems to get the better of me. we learn subjects ranging from Communication skills, Business Ethics, Statistics, IT (my cuppa tea) to Organisational culture, Behavioral aspects (a peek into human behavior) etcetera. Coupled with these are the innumerable assignments, surprise tests (Questions are as surprising as ever!) and presentations. Phew!! One bunch of googlies thrown at you.

Two more weeks and I will be done with my first term. Pretty fast-moving, I must say!

Squeezed in some time to write this. I had to write! There was this itch to blog.. Signing off for now..adios!