OT… OT… April 21, 2007

From OTs nowhere to OTs everywhere… From I take it to you take that… From speculations to reality… From fame game to Blame game…it has been a package.The month of April in IIFM, is what I am talking about. Well, much has been talked about the OTs that I really do not want to talk more about it. But I am thrilled about my project in Chennai and the excitement that others have shown from there respective OTs.

Let’s start with my story…I was not actually sure where and what kind of project I would like to do. Then, IFMR interview happened. All went good and I was through. Was excited… really was. At the same time I was free of that speculating game. Blessed I was I thought.Well, with that started my preparations. Chennai was supposed to be a new place for me. I was coming here all alone. Bit nervous… ya agreed I was.

14th of April was the D- day. Started with packing… lots of things intervened… finally boarded the train early morning. Could not sleep the previous night so slept as soon as I settled in the train. Newspaper, coffee, bla bla… but nothing did bother me. I slept slept and slept. Then around 2 I got up… a little later I asked the boy for lunch… Madam no lunch… time over was his reply. Ooohhhh…. Damn hungry I was… did not had breakfast as well. I rushed down at

Nagpur and got myself two alloo wada and two daal wada. I was so hungry that I did not realize how the first alloo wada tasted, just gulped it. Then the second one… man it was good!!!

Now I made sure that I ordered for dinner this time. But yuks… it was bad!!! Anyways had it and off to sleep again. I reached here the very next day. And then began my tryst with Chennai

When I was zapped… March 6, 2007

Sometimes or perhaps often life unfolds strange things. Since the time I have joined IIFM peculiar things have happened to me. Some so strange that I am still unable to comprehend the W’s (why, what, where).

 

This time round I tried to be empathetic to one of the elite IIFMites… I whole-heartedly wished for the success of this person. I thought I was investing my time when I chatted for hours all together being an agony aunt of sorts, listening to all the confessions but then this was the reply I got-

 

“thank youuuuuuuu

from the deepest core of my burning nausiating stomach and from the darkest abyss of my noxious pale black heart

forever in debt of u r priceless advices and wishess

 

 

 

Well may be I could get it or may be not but yes I was zapped…

 

Few days have passed and another of the so-called elite IIFMite has again sent me the same words (barring few unintentional spelling mistakes)-

 

“dear——–”est”" neha,  thank u from deepest core of my burning nausiting stomach and the darkest abyss of my noxcious pale black heart that you have opened my eyes. forever indebt of ur priceless advices. “

 

 

 Am I still zapped or I pity people or I feel sorry for myself…

 

Still unable to comprehend…May God give me all the wisdom to do so!!!

xams… March 1, 2007

Just through with my mid-term exams of the third term in IIFM.

As of now there have been two terms each having two set of exams. In a span of say 8 months it was the 5th exam that we gave. huh… would be anybodies reaction.

But then its really not my reaction… coz it is the only time in IIFM that I manage to sleep for 10-12 hrs on a strech. Strange know but yes thats the way it is…. no assignments, no quizes, no classes, no worries at all.

Fresh mornings that you can cherish all your life, going to the mess with handouts in hand, gigling the way out as others feel tensed, and then the crucial golden hour before the exam…

Thats when things get on your nerves… mercury soaring up and then you realise life is so tough!!!

As paper comes in you release every thing. After an hour you are in canteen chai pe chai… preparing for another war… another exam… history repeats itself.

But then 5 ‘O’ Clock, best evenings of your life when you go for a walk with a friend to talk, ample time to hear birds chirp, to see the sun set…

I bet…

these are the best days in IIFM

Kalpataru Week February 12, 2007

12.02.07 – 17.02.07

Kalpataru is a week long fest that we have in IIFM. Its organised by the students for themselves, Faculties, Staff and the families.

This time round we have many events ranging from sports, cultural, literary and  adventure.

Baddy, volley, cricket… we play it all. The enthusiasm levels have reached an all time high as our events keep streching late till night. The thermometer keeps soaring as is the competition between two teams…. but survival is for the fittest…. more than that its your luck as you may or may not shine on the D-day

The literary club is on a hunt for a literary czar… The journey have several formal and informal hurdles. JAM, Extempore, Debate, Word fun game, Treasure Hunt…. are the formal ones and the informal ones include crossword, case study analysis and so on….

The most colourful is the cultural club where you fill colours to be on top…. as they offer poster making, collage making, best pic and bollywood events. But thats not all coz there list of formal events have not yet started. It includes Dumb Charades, all time favourite antaakshri, ADMAD, and the masti game.. Two 2 Tango..

Adventure club would make its presence felt by making the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE.

Most novel would be the Nature club who will try and bring smile on children’s face with there events for children.

Then is the Grand Finale on the 17th.

Lods of fun and masti to come !!

PaRTy TiMe… February 12, 2007

When its IIFM, its party time. More often than not we all are in a party mood coz of we are a kind of a small family ready 2 share joys and happiness.

More often than not we have no good reason but this time it was diffrent. We had 35 odd, good reasons to cheer for….

Surprised!! Well do not be coz when its placement week at IIFM, Celebrations ought to be there

A whopping average package of 6.7 Lacs is like a dream come true. Though the fire is still there as are the debates regarding placement being synonynous with the Mandate, but still that was no hindrance…. and we were ready to have a gala time…

The venue was “THE RESIDENCY”, the day was 11.02.07…….

 The music was hot, food was awesome, great hospitality….

Really it was fun to be a part of…

Thank you seniors

And all the best for your future endeavours !!

Aapno Gujarat… December 7, 2006

Well… 3rd december… IIFM campus was missing the junior batch who had left for there month long feild trip. But our team left at last. We wished every team luck , saw them depart, adviced them , n wat not. But the funniest part is when it came to us … we nearly mised our train… had to rush real hard to get into it.

Any ways we reached Gujarat and its just 3 dayz but it seems as if we its ages that we have been here. hah…..these forest officials, Factory staff, the jungle jeep, the scroching heat…. man it becomes difficult at times. Any wayz best part is the visit to villages, talking to the villagers and seeing that they are more scientific than we are, the rest houses , the royal treatment…
well its been a mix of adventure , learning, hard times , good moments…..
newayz lot to write but will continue in my next blog

My privilliege November 23, 2006

Well, being at IIFM has been a privillige for me. But today was the day full of oppurtunities to meet such wonderful people that I feel even more privilliged.

The First person I happened to meet were General Manager( Project Foundation), FDC, Madhya Pradesh. I happend to meet him because of an assignment again given by another well read faculty. Anyways comming back to Mr. GM, he was an IFS officer sitting in a small cabin painted green ( I should here tell you that the whole Office was painted green even the information boards : truely reprensentative of the forest ) with a computer. The cabin was so small that our team comprising of five members seemed to be crowd for it. However he got sufficient chairs arranged for us and made us feel comfortable. To my surprise he odered chai for all of us. IIFMites as I understand now are seen with high regards at all such places. Before we started he made us feel home by asking our names ,backgrounds or in short parichay as they say. As usual we had little idea about what to ask and then where to start from. But perhaps he sensed it or what because he started on his own and kept on and on….. MY GOD!!! he downloaded so much of info in such a small span of time and that to adding relavant examples ,proverbs whenever relavant. Knowledge is power as some one rightly said. It indeed is , because it gives you strength, a perspective, a vision. He was a balance of professional as well as informal attitude. A civil servant and a common man. For the first time forestry seemed to be a science not of books but of observation as he pointed out. Well it was really a prvillege to meet a person with such a practical mindset.

As We came back to our insti we were supposed to attend a guest lecture by another IFS , author of several books , published so many papers almost four times of our age. Well, we also happen to read his book on forest mensuration. Most of us thought that we are heading for another boring lecture. Many thought of skipping it aswell but whenever there is a guest lecture people make sure to attend it because IIFM’s reputation is at stake. Again a surprise, such an aged person with a voice that can put many of our faculties at shame( because many of them preffer using microphone in a class of 40). Clarity, voice modulation so perfect. He started with a simple tree and I wonder when he ended with management. He was so fluent that I do not remember that he paused for a second. He maintained such a rate that every body was able to comprehend. It was rare to see my batchmates listening with pindrop silence and none of them with eyes shut or a leaning body or a tilted head. It was a session of 40 mins or so but worth attending. Not only me but every body was influenced by his aura. For the first time I realised that silviculture could be so simple and I just fell in love with the subject or may be the man himself.

Well, The next person that we all interacted was Regional Director, of a well known non profit organisation and an IIFM Alumini from the batch of 1990. For the first time was such a session so much of LEARNing and NJOYing. He gave us some gyan about what to do and what not to do. He was not quite young as we are but made us comfortable by cracking jokes. Every body could not help but laugh at the one liners the man had to offer. His gyan dhan was related to good and not so good experinces of his life. He made us realise that no books can make you good manager but simple things can make you an effective manager.  Organised, Networked, orator, charmer, rational, practicle may be the words if I was to define him.

Well lot learnt , lot felt and lot observed. May I continue to meet such charismatic people

A Reveleation November 21, 2006

Well, it was the most tedious assignment given by one of our most well read faculty that made me spent almost 2 days in the library. Though I am a regular face in the library but my usual dealings were the reference books and related stuff. Never bothered to look beyond that.

Before I go further let me tell that ours is a well stocked library comprising three floors. The library boasts of 33000 volumes and subscribes to over 200 national and international journals. And in this tech savvy world it ought to be digitised and it is.

Our assignment required us to dig into the journal section and select around 8 peer reviewed papers. It seemed so easy that a laid back person like me kept on delaying the task. Now one fine morning which happened to be a saturday morning I decided why not finish it off.

Here began my tryst with the IIFM library. I started at 10 in the morning went to the journal section to find that whole of the 2nd floor is full of journals. Well their are almost 15-20 years volumes that makes 10000 articles per journal. And hold your breath we had a choice to select 8 articles from as much as 90,000 or more articles. Tedious task indeed!! Struggled hard and the search went on and on….. hard luck !! Got so frustrated that went out 4 tea and then lunch.After the lunch again ready to try my luck went to the same second floor.

This was for the first time in life I realised what I do not know… Well to know what you know is a bliss but to know what you dont know can be a blessing.And I think it is for me that I have become little keen about what to read and how to go about it.

Comming back to my assignment well Library staff came to my rescue. Sir introduced me to the unexplored options of the LibSys software that we have( well may I tell you that am one of the most computer illetrate person). It is like a magic wand – You move your fingers on the keyboard to enter few keywords to get the list of related articles. Now note down the reference numbers search for them in the journal section and get it xeroxed. It is dammn so easy i thought. Well laughed at myself for moment and then carried on.

However I was a kind of late, 6 ‘o’ clock rang the clock and library was closed for the day(weekends it is shut early). Next morning I was back on my mission this time knew exactly where I was heading. A little digging a little toggeling and I was through by lunch time gave all the papers to be xeroxed . A happy soul I was… task half done now the challenge lies to read them and prepare review articles

Though it took me two days, spoiled my weekend, I could not complete the assignment Still I was happy. It is because I might not be better off literally but what is more imporatant is I am more aware. Aware of what I know and what I do not

Hope to continue such small trips to library  

Journey so far.. November 16, 2006

It’s been about four months in IIFM . Seems as if it was yesterday that we joined the campus. Strange it was……… unknown place …. unknown faces ….but don’t exacty remember when all of us started gelling together………n now yelling together All that was not so easy…. I still cant forget those stupid little…tit for tat…quarrels. Always being part of some or other argument.But then every body was full of zeal……ambition……enthusiasm…..may be this worked or the late night walks….dirty assignments….canteen talks….groups that study…..or the ones that don’t….dance in the rain…..sharing umbrellas…..sitting wella…and then the baddy court…….can’t even dare to forget that…..otherwise GBM hai na….Still many more moments to come that we will cherish all our life. Three cheers for the IIFM…..hip hip……hiphip….hiphip….