TERM-1 REFLECTIONS - SEC F

With the increasing student strength in ISB, the number of sections is also on a rise. Section F is one of the new sections that came into effect this year to accommodate the increasing number of students. No less versatile than any other sections, Section F is marked by all sorts of interesting in-section activities. Professionally, it is as diversified as the ISB student body, if not more. In one row in the lecture theatre, you can trace CAs, a Major from the Indian army, a doctor from the Indian Navy, IT project managers and leaders, a merchant navy officer, a real estate entrepreneur, marketers from diversified sectors like media and PSUs, a master chef from India’s top hotel management institute, economists, mathematics graduates, non IT engineers…… and not to forget the naval architect. Quite a diversified group…I must say.
One thing that differentiates section F from other section is the immeasurable level of enthusiasm and individualistic traits that each individual is blessed with. For instance, there is one gentleman named SK, whose high frequency and super fast speed of delivering CPs can even baffle the native professors of the Whartons and Kelloggs. Then you can find SY, who often comes with highly indigenous solutions to the class assignments with an irresistible desire to prove his point to the whole class. In one of the marketing assignments, when the whole section was inclined towards one methodology, there was SY on the other end of the roundtable, trying hard to convince the professor the effectiveness of his methodology….I must agree that he succeeded to some extent. AK, another gentleman, normally prefers to maintain his silence before he decides to break the rythm of the class to ask the "deepest" questions of the terms. Last time, he asked a question was in the stats class, and a professor of the stature of Prof. Waterman decided to stop for a while to say "wow, this is one of the deepest questions that have ever been asked to me".
There is my very own F-6 core study group member, H, whose passion for diamonds is remarkably evident and perceptible in her CPs. Then there are some people who have successfully developed the postures that can help them to take those intermittent classroom naps until they are cold called by the professor. The best posture which I have noted so far is that of AA. With her elbow on the desk, she has developed a fool proof method of covering her specs with her thumb and first finger, such that her thumb, 1st finger and her face profile form a kind of a right angled triangle, which makes it almost impossible to figure out the status of her eyes. In contrast, there is PT, who believes in complete freedom of an individual in a democracy and doesn’t mind taking a comfortable nap with his head on the desk behind him (only exception being Prof. Raju’s class). But one thing, I find surprising about PT, is the way, he bounces back with his questions to the professor. May be, his posture in the class is just his method of concentrating, that helps him keeping in pace with the lectures Occassionally, we have seen SY taking a nap with his head on the shoulder of the TA (Teaching Assistant), who sits beside him.
NG, the operation guy from one of the Indian public sector undertakings always brings fresh dimensions to the class discussions from his real life experience. It is really interesting to hear from him, how the management principles of the “public” sector undertaking are exactly opposite to what we learn in the class (i.e. the real principles of successful management which the private sector has successfully employed.).
Well… the list is never ending….let me stop here… will be back soon to post the last post of the “TERM-1 REFLECTION” series.