Contributed By : Varun
6.28.2008
GMPians rubbing shoulders with Defence Professionals
We are just 2 weeks into the course and all were already looking up for the welcome break. This in itself speaks volumes about how quickly a one year course can get onto your nerves. However I guess all of us are seasoned players and have seen worst days in our lives and have fought our own battles before coming to this place. This is what makes this group so special. We had a cocktail party with the graduates of Executive Management Programme for defense officer. It was nice to see all the gentlemen and the ladies dressed in their best attires especially not under any compulsion (phun intended!!). The evening started with clanking of the glasses and popping of the cork, with each one indulging into their choicest kind of drinks available on the house. It was nice to see the liveliness in the batch and the group dynamism already working at its best. Everyone busy networking and making friend. All had found their own clicks, some were busy rubbing shoulders with the strong and elite class of professional from the Indian Defense Forces while others chose to interact with faculty members and get more insights into the vision of XLRI and then their were some who chose to just drink !!! The icing on the cake came when someone broke the news that one particular lecture for tomorrow has been cancelled. For obvious reasons the drinks counter experienced a sudden rush post that moment. The evening ended on a high note with everyone looking relaxed and happy.
6.23.2008
The beginning...
Light symbolizes wisdom, dispelling the darkness of ignorance. As the lamp was lit in the prayer service for the beginning of the academic year 2008 at XLRI, Jamshedpur; I could sense that Light permeating through each and every Student present in the TATA auditorium, and giving each individual the inner strength and motivation to achieve his/her goals.
As the words and the music of the bhajans seeped into us, every one of us was disposed to listen to the words of wisdom:
As the choir sang:
Sharanam Sharanam (4) Preethi Swarupane sharanam,
Divya Jothiye Sharanam; Karuna murthiye Sharanam,
Jeeva Dathane Sharanam; Divya Tejane Sharanam
Shanti Datane Sharanam
Which translates to:
You are our refuge, you who are love personified,
you who are divine light;You who are mercy itself,
You who are life; You who are holy light,
You who are peace itself,
You are our refuge
A particular reading taken from the Rig Veda was very profound and held the audience spellbound by the sheer amount of learning, humility and God's wonderful creativity, that one can comprehend from each of the stanzas:
There then was neither Aught nor Nought,
No air nor sky beyond.
What Covered all? Where rested all?
In watery gulf profound?
Nor death was there nor deathlessness,
Nor change of Night and day.
That one breathed calmly, self sustained:
Nor else beyond it lay.
Within it first arose desire,
The primal germ of mind,
Which nothing with existence links,
As sages searching find.
Who Knows, whoe'er hath told, from whence
This vast creation arose?
Whence sprang this world, and whether framed
By hand divine or no, its lord in heaven alone can tell!
As I was pulled deep into the complex quagmires of intellectual thoughts, I just sat there absorbing each and every word that was uttered, and trying to put things in context, It was not that difficult to comprehend after all. After a few minutes of silent reflection, the choir began to sing one of Tagore's Gems: A Hymn called 'Silent Steps': It Goes Like this:
Have You not heard his silent steps (2)
He comes, comes, ever comes!
Many a song have I sung, in many a mood of mind,
But all their notes have always proclaimed,
"He comes, comes, ever comes"!
In the fragrant days of Sunny april, through the forest path,
He comes , comes ever comes !
Have You not heard his silent steps (2)
He comes, comes, ever comes!
The gist of the prayers delivered by the choir made one thing crystal clear: Each GMP student is here so that he may obtain true wisdom that leads to happiness, that he may have good health to earnestly pursue his goals, that he may trust in the guidance of the teachers, that his words come out from the depth of truth, that he may tirelessly strive and stretch his arms towards excellence, that his mind may be led forward into ever widening Knowledge and Integrity.
With such a divine and stimulating start to our educational career, I'm sure each XLRI GMP'ian 2008-09 is destined to reach for the stars and beyond....
May the God of all Knowledge and Love Who brought us all here walk with all of us during our stay at XLRI.
As the words and the music of the bhajans seeped into us, every one of us was disposed to listen to the words of wisdom:
As the choir sang:
Sharanam Sharanam (4) Preethi Swarupane sharanam,
Divya Jothiye Sharanam; Karuna murthiye Sharanam,
Jeeva Dathane Sharanam; Divya Tejane Sharanam
Shanti Datane Sharanam
Which translates to:
You are our refuge, you who are love personified,
you who are divine light;You who are mercy itself,
You who are life; You who are holy light,
You who are peace itself,
You are our refuge
A particular reading taken from the Rig Veda was very profound and held the audience spellbound by the sheer amount of learning, humility and God's wonderful creativity, that one can comprehend from each of the stanzas:
There then was neither Aught nor Nought,
No air nor sky beyond.
What Covered all? Where rested all?
In watery gulf profound?
Nor death was there nor deathlessness,
Nor change of Night and day.
That one breathed calmly, self sustained:
Nor else beyond it lay.
Within it first arose desire,
The primal germ of mind,
Which nothing with existence links,
As sages searching find.
Who Knows, whoe'er hath told, from whence
This vast creation arose?
Whence sprang this world, and whether framed
By hand divine or no, its lord in heaven alone can tell!
As I was pulled deep into the complex quagmires of intellectual thoughts, I just sat there absorbing each and every word that was uttered, and trying to put things in context, It was not that difficult to comprehend after all. After a few minutes of silent reflection, the choir began to sing one of Tagore's Gems: A Hymn called 'Silent Steps': It Goes Like this:
Have You not heard his silent steps (2)
He comes, comes, ever comes!
Many a song have I sung, in many a mood of mind,
But all their notes have always proclaimed,
"He comes, comes, ever comes"!
In the fragrant days of Sunny april, through the forest path,
He comes , comes ever comes !
Have You not heard his silent steps (2)
He comes, comes, ever comes!
The gist of the prayers delivered by the choir made one thing crystal clear: Each GMP student is here so that he may obtain true wisdom that leads to happiness, that he may have good health to earnestly pursue his goals, that he may trust in the guidance of the teachers, that his words come out from the depth of truth, that he may tirelessly strive and stretch his arms towards excellence, that his mind may be led forward into ever widening Knowledge and Integrity.
With such a divine and stimulating start to our educational career, I'm sure each XLRI GMP'ian 2008-09 is destined to reach for the stars and beyond....
May the God of all Knowledge and Love Who brought us all here walk with all of us during our stay at XLRI.
Contributed By: Sairam
6.18.2008
GMP 2008-09 : Batch Profile
Now that we are almost into the middle of the first week of the session, I thought it would be a good idea to share with you all the profile of our batch.
XLRI has always attracted bright students and this year has been no different. The strength of the batch was raised to 100 taking into consideration the demand of the industry. It is a no brainer that the in Management programs, any institute gives a lot of attention to batch diversity. This is all the more important for an one year program where P2P (peer-to-peer) learning is as important as learnings in the class. XLRI's GMP 2008-09 batch has not disappointed in this aspect. Since the minimum experience is 5 years and there are a lot of candidates with 9-10 years of work experience, there is a lot of experience and learning brought to the table. This year the selectivity for the GMP programme about 2.5% which places this program as among the most selective in the world - the average GMAT score is close to 700 which again makes the program very competetive - international work experience of the batch at 2.5 years and last but not the least, the average work experience of the batch is about 7.5 years !!!!
I cannot but emphasize on the importance of P2P learning here at XLRI. This is very much prevalent here inasmuch that the first 'case' given to the batch was from a real-life experience of a gentleman on duty in a cargo ship. What's more, the exercise was given on the second day of the session!!
Let us now come to the batch profile. As is so prevalent in most of the B-Schools in India, the IT guys rule the roost. Yours Truly also happens to be one of them. But the monotony ends there. There are students from sectors like Banking , Shipping, Textiles, Fashion, Education, Power , Energy, Aeronautics, Telecom, Finance, Retail and so on. There is also a good mix of people coming from the PSUs. It is also heartening to note that we also have an ex-Army man and an ex-lecturer in zoology amongst us.
I hope we will learn from each other both inside and outside the class.
NB: This is an unofficial post. The official batch profile will be released by the institute shortly.
XLRI has always attracted bright students and this year has been no different. The strength of the batch was raised to 100 taking into consideration the demand of the industry. It is a no brainer that the in Management programs, any institute gives a lot of attention to batch diversity. This is all the more important for an one year program where P2P (peer-to-peer) learning is as important as learnings in the class. XLRI's GMP 2008-09 batch has not disappointed in this aspect. Since the minimum experience is 5 years and there are a lot of candidates with 9-10 years of work experience, there is a lot of experience and learning brought to the table. This year the selectivity for the GMP programme about 2.5% which places this program as among the most selective in the world - the average GMAT score is close to 700 which again makes the program very competetive - international work experience of the batch at 2.5 years and last but not the least, the average work experience of the batch is about 7.5 years !!!!
I cannot but emphasize on the importance of P2P learning here at XLRI. This is very much prevalent here inasmuch that the first 'case' given to the batch was from a real-life experience of a gentleman on duty in a cargo ship. What's more, the exercise was given on the second day of the session!!
Let us now come to the batch profile. As is so prevalent in most of the B-Schools in India, the IT guys rule the roost. Yours Truly also happens to be one of them. But the monotony ends there. There are students from sectors like Banking , Shipping, Textiles, Fashion, Education, Power , Energy, Aeronautics, Telecom, Finance, Retail and so on. There is also a good mix of people coming from the PSUs. It is also heartening to note that we also have an ex-Army man and an ex-lecturer in zoology amongst us.
I hope we will learn from each other both inside and outside the class.
NB: This is an unofficial post. The official batch profile will be released by the institute shortly.
6.17.2008
Of XL and Finetune!!!!
I am having an amazing experience here and am sure that the same feeling will be shared with all my GMP batchmates - the first few days in XL have been eye-opening for most of us - The professors here are some of the most passionate and excellent teachers I have ever come across. It really is most important to not compromise on the quality of one's education - its worth waiting a while than going for some other option - I always believed in this and now I can see the wisdom of my own words!!!!!
On Another unrelated note , I listen to online radio stations over the internet a lot - however discovered that pandora has been blocked in India due to licensing issues - stumbled upon finetune.com and it seems to be an even better site for playing online music. You can create a playlist of upto 45 songs in a playlist and save it for future listening!!!! Amazing to say the least....... My XL days are taken care of - with the best education, a great peer learning experience and great music to go alongwith it !!!
-Abhishek
On Another unrelated note , I listen to online radio stations over the internet a lot - however discovered that pandora has been blocked in India due to licensing issues - stumbled upon finetune.com and it seems to be an even better site for playing online music. You can create a playlist of upto 45 songs in a playlist and save it for future listening!!!! Amazing to say the least....... My XL days are taken care of - with the best education, a great peer learning experience and great music to go alongwith it !!!
-Abhishek
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