Of exams in Bombay and arbit classes in WIMWI

With resume-making for summer placements out of the way and my passing the NCFM exam last week, there is again time to write and read for pleasure.

My trip to Bombay was quite eventful. Prostee, Chhedi, Moti and I reached Borivali at 5:30-6 am on Friday. We then took a taxi thinking it would cost no more than 160 bucks. In spite of a perfectly clear road and no signals, the fare came to be 260. I think now that we were conned by an 'engineered' meter. We went to my house, where my parents were absent. They were in Ahmedabad visiting some temples in the vicinity. After reading for some hours, we left for the NSE building in Bandra-Kurla Complex at 9:30. The exam began at 11:30, and though we were apprehensive because of our sketchy preparations, we all managed to clear the exam quite comfortably (The NCFM exams are conducted by NSE to provide certification for financial intermediaries. We took the Derivatives Module, which is a prerequisite for trading at an NSE terminal. Of course, I took the exam to have something to show on my CV). We drove next to my college, where I left my friends who went to Juhu beach. I met Jay and Ankit in college, and also a few professors and juniors. I was rather surprised that even 5-6 juniors recognised me. But it was fun disbursing gyaan about the CAT anyway :)

Then the trio proceeded to Fame and Westside in Andheri where I joined them at 5:20. I later met Devesh and chatted with him for a few minutes after he came out of his office which happens to be exactly opposite Westside. We were forced to rush for our train which was scheduled to leave Dadar at 7:48. We reached the place about 8 minutes before time. Unfortunately the train was delayed by almost half an hour. After interesting discussions in the train, we were back in WIMWI by 6:30 on Saturday. We has missed three classes and a QM quiz.

Life is back to routine. Our subjects this term are not as interesting as those in the last term. The equivalent of ID last term is Inter Group Porcesses (IGP). This has been a surprisingly good subject. I have enjoyed the classes and have had a good time introspecting my difficulties in dealing with groups. Marketing is another new subject this term. Unfortunately we do not have a good professor. She may or may not have adequate knowkedge of the subject, but she has no control over the class. Hence, people just spew garbage out during the discussion and she appreciates all the arbit comments. Things have come to such a pass that people can come without reading the case and still participate in class without fear of being caught out by the professor. Today we were discussing a case about the marketing of solar cookers in
Gujarat and someone said, "Maam, we should export the cookers to Africa!" Imagine what would have happened to such a contributor in last term's HR class!