Abhinav Banta, Class of 2015 Listening to music is the fuel to me while I am studying (read as: trying to study). I am not sure if it has a positive effect on academic performance, but it sure does stabilize me mentally especially during the pressure cooker situations that we usually find ourselves at ISB. I prefer ghazals over any other forms of music (Jagjit Singh/Ghulam Ali). The general expression of pain or loss, which is the subject of most ghazals, appeals to me and the lyrics are heavenly. Here are my picks:
1. Chupke Chupke Raat Din - Ustad Ghulam Ali
2. Aahista Aahista- Jagjit Singh
3. Classics of Madan Mohan and Lata Mangeshkar
These are again mostly sad songs but i like them. They are musically very rich.
4. Coke Studio
This wonderful initiative all about beautiful musical collaboration needs no introduction!
Anjan, Class of 2015
1. God is an astronaut - All is Violent All is Bright. This song has been on my playlist since its release almost a decade ago. With a perfect blend of clean sounds and heavy distortion and no vocals to distract the listener, it is indeed worth a listen when you are toiling to crack a 25 page case.
2. Indus creed - Fireflies.
This feel good song by one of India's oldest rock bands is simple yet powerful. A must listen!
3. Until We Last - Rain.
As much as this would seem like a publicity gimmick (considering that it is my band!), at least a couple of people on campus have come back to tell me that this song helped them get through some boring subjects. Check it out!
Arpit Gupta, Class of 2015
1. It's My Life - Bon Jovi
It talks abt how your life is like an open highway, which gives u the freedom to shape it your way.
2. Turn The page - Bob Seger
It talks about the ups and down of life and how u shoud get on road again and turn the page from the past to the future.
3. Desert rose - Sting
The way the song has been shot gels with the theme pretty well. Its has a very romantic, philosophical longing to it which talks about dreams, despair and hope.
Siddharth Bajpai, Class of 2015
1. Shofukan - Snarky Puppy
Jazz is very unstructured, improvisational music, and this track really has that sense of fun to it. It's incredible that it was recorded with barely a day of writing and prior rehearsal. I like to listen to it when reading cases and studying subjects that need tangential, creative thinking.
Ideal for: MKDM, CSTR, SIMT.
2. La Catedral - Agustin Barrios (as played by Gabriel Bianco)
A wonderfully absorbing piece from the great Paraguayan guitarist Barrios, one of the earliest classical composers to have his work recorded. Here it is interpreted by French guitarist Gabriel Bianco. I like listening to it while I study analytical, dry subjects because it distracts me from monotony and reminds me of traveling in Europe.
Good fit for: DMOP, CFIN, SMMD.
3. Telegraph Road - Dire Straits (Alchemy live version)
Telegraph Road tells the story of a city almost like it's a living being, and Knopfler (who used to be an English teacher before, thankfully, becoming a full time musician) paints the imagery both with lyrics and prose-like electric guitar lines. This is a classic concert recording, lively and dramatic, and works well when doing work that is simple but exposed to a high potential for faff.
Here at ISB, you get to meet a talented bunch of people. And we have gifted photographers who not only capture these moments but take great shots of the campus as well!
Charan Mohan and Taran Bedi, from the Class of 2015 are passionate about photography. Here are a couple of clicks taken by them, of the sprawling Mohali campus in all its grandeur.
The continuous buzz, the high strung crowd, the never sleeping campus - ISB! No TGIF, no weekends, just straight days and nights with one random night to party till you drop! This is the life of an average ISB student. And then there is me, the passive MBA student who lives all of this, with just one minor difference.. I don’t get the MBA degree!! Yes, I am the +1 of the high-strung-always-on-the-run ISB-ian! The spouse, the family, the collateral, the Outlier in the random sample!
I am in a hostel though not in the college, I am putting up with the mess food though I am not a student, I seem to know sonite-vodite, studies all night, CFIN 1 &2 , death by DMOP, biases of MGTO, Nash’s equilibrium, Zara’s strategy, FADM & MADM.. Yet I am no to be -MBA! I am an MBA by induction! And very much like passive smoking, which is as dangerous as actual smoking.. Let me tell you. ..And do believe me when I say so.. Passive MBA is almost as stressful as an actual MBA!
Friday for me is still THE FRIDAY! No office, no work! But being in this battleground of a campus, whosoever I meet, has a whole lot of bottled up emotions .The moment you say Wassup, you are greeted with a despaired story of a student. Some can’t keep track of the assignments, some just can't get along with the study group, some can’t even get hold of the every member of the group, some are sure they won’t get placed, some don’t know what the prof just said and for some it’s just one or two painful word ..”CFIN” “LSCM” followed by a deep and long…..”Yaaaaaaaar”. And there goes my mood from Thank God it’s Friday to Oh No So much stress!!
It is frustrating.. not to be able to follow every new movie release, to go to shopping and keep thinking “I am wasting his time”, to go a dinner with his phone continuously reminding how many places he has/had to be, to take a stroll with your husband and some or the other person commenting on 'How much time he has!' I won’t lie; sometimes I just want to run away!
But then, then there are those oblivious moments, when you sit with a lost ISB-ian friend and tell him
“Dude, you are in ISB, the best college in the country, if you don’t get placed, then no one in the country is getting placed” or just “You've got to get me in your company once you get placed yaar” or “Hey, I like your dress” or just tease around “Oh so what happened today, heard you still researching about what happened in Marketing class”, "who asked you to take LSCM, Apple jana tha na (You had to go for Apple)”“Aur bano so and so president" or just a small opening statement “Maut(death) by DMOP huh?” … and you see a smile spread on their face, might be because of my limited knowledge of complex issues or just because they can’t make me understand the gravity of the situation, but that’s that one moment which makes them smile , makes them burst into a laugh, takes their mind off everything and makes them share every funny CP, incident, debate that happened with me!
That is when I realize, why I am here. I might be get frustrated by induction, I might be feeling out of place at times, I might be feeling more of a wife then I ever did, I might be getting stressed even without getting a degree…but I am something else also; I am a naïve break from something that my ISB friends are working towards and something that keeps slipping out of control every now and then. I am the coffee break, the random stroll, the idiotic translation of every confusing funda, I am the spouse for whom everyone spares few minutes, even if out of respect.
I might be an outlier, but didn't someone tell me once, “Outliers define the pattern?"
It was down to a nail biting finish. She cheered along with the rest when her team scored one of the last few points up for grabs. And yet, her fingers intertwined, dug into each other in a frantic, silent player - almost willing nature, or god or just about anyone to reverse the tide.
The players were back again on the field - the slow intense jostle to make it to the finish line.
She barely managed to show the right amount of disappointment when her team lost the next point and the next and then another one. Her heart was now beating to a slow thump. She knew they would lose, yet she was internally bursting into a million mental jigs.
The final whistle was out. Her fingers relaxed leaving behind those tiny red marks where her nails had dug into the flesh. Poetic justice she felt. For even though her team was the color of nature, her heart was with the color of fury.
Drinks and Wires
It had been a grueling week – no sleep and no peace. He felt wired up like a caged beast ready to maul anything in its wake. His quad was empty, with a kind of peace he hated. There was chaos outside – a party with music that he, at best , tolerated. He waited, slow counting seconds and breathing in this mix of unwanted chaos and peace.
As the old monk warmed him up, he cursed, opened the door and chose chaos.
Silhouettes and Senses
She walked into the room, her silhouette framed by the smoke and moving unnoticeable to the music. As she walked around, moving in and out of groups, conversations and laughter, she appeared involved. Yet, only the discerning could see the flutter in her eyes – searching and seeking.
The pitter patter of tiny feet in the LRC
was a rather unexpected (and pleasant!) departure from the usual bunch of
deadline crazed PGP students. For this day marked the start of Net Impact’s
brand new initiative “Chalo Padhe” at the Mohali campus of ISB. Six children,
ranging in age from three to sixteen, were given lessons and home-work support
(English and Math seemed to be the popular subjects) by our volunteer teachers.
The Net Impact hopes to host a total of sixteen children in the next few months!
Imran makes Little Karthik feel at home
“Chalo Padhe” is the precious new baby of the
Net Impact Club and very close to our hearts. As the president, Shruti Sharma,
insists, the club’s impact must start right at home first—through a weekend
school for the bright children of staff members working tirelessly around us. As
for the teachers, fortunately, ISB is home to many talented professionals not
only in its student pool but amongst its teaching assistants, administrative
staff and spouses.
So if on a Sunday, you find yourself bored
or want a small diversion or perhaps just need that fix from a dose of
self-less work, come by and see these curious minds in action. Perhaps we could
compel you to be a part-time teacher with us.. for just two hours of your time
can leave a lasting impression!
Kshiteesh, a volunteer says:
"Interacting with underprivileged kids teaches you how they have to fight for even the ordinary things that we take for granted. Deeply sobering experience." Rajashree Sen, Class of 2015
