Dadu’s... Timeless & Priceless

At the recently held 25th reunion of the XLRI batch of 1979, voices were heard murmuring about the changes at XL… “When we were here, the Acad block area was a huge lawn” “Everything has changed so much…” As the XLers of ’79 took a walk around the campus, nostalgic and a little overwhelmed, the one place they rushed to with a sense of relief was… Dadus. Yes, the one place that has remained unchanged… both in terms of location and the warmth it exudes.

Dadus was started in the early 70s by a man named Srikanth, who later came to be known as ‘Dadu’, in the football ground. A few years later, XL set up the building that currently houses this little tea shop. Run by Niranjan da, the son of Dadu, this ‘quaint lemonade stand’ as one XLer of the batch of 2006 called it continues to be a vital link in the social life of an XLer.

A typical day at Dadus begins at the twilight hour when, after a hard night’s ‘work’ (read movies on LAN, graxing, wetnights, AoE, NFS…), an XLer knocks on the wooden window shutter to grab a cup of chai and sutta before crawling into bed. Boni money is kept handy in the form of small change, and the log lying outside is the perfect place to sit down, sip one’s tea and watch a new day dawn. Till a few years back, says Niranjan da, he used to be woken up as early at 4.30-5… in the winter months, though, it is only a brave few who venture out before 6.30-7.

When asked about the changes he has seen at XLRI, Niranjan da says that his whole life has been lived out at XL—to recount the changes would be akin to narrating his life story. Niranjan da and his brother Chittaranjan (or Chitto) live near Sonari in a joint family. Their father passed away a few years back, and their mother lives with them. Niranjan da is happily married with three children. To Niranjan da, Dadus isn’t just a teashop or a means to earn his living—it is his father’s heritage, and he intends to continue running it the way it has been run all these years.

Asked if he particularly remembers any batch, he says that to him, life has taken on a cycle of continuity where every year he sees a host of new faces that somehow all converge to form a composite called the XLer. Many come back years after passing out, and drop in to say hello. They leave their corporate image at the gates of XL and when at Dadus they are, once again, just XLers sipping their nimbu pani and graxing.

Dadus is witness to the host of celebrations and events that go on at XL throughout the year… the placement processes, MAXI fair, XL-IIMC and various festivals. Dadus is especially decked up during Durga puja, when the walls are newly painted and the entrance decorated with a string of colored lights.

Xlers don’t just drop in at Dadus for a bite to eat or a sutta—they also drop in just to step away from life for a little bit, take a break and savor a few moments of peace. Life’s simple pleasures can be observed in the way Buddhu and Mangal, the two boys working at Dadus, interact with the students. To Niranjan da, they are a part of his family and so are the students and faculty who frequent his shop. Service is homely and given with a generous dose of laughter and chitchat. Asked whathe does in the summer months when the students are away, Niranjan
da replies with a smile “Karne ko kya hai? Hum June ka wait karte hain jab sab waapas aa jayange aur phir campus mein jaan aa jayegi”.

Niranjan da says that his life is full and content, and he has no ambitions of expanding business. XLRI has been a part of his life for far too long now, and it makes him happy to be doing what he is doing. When approached for this article, he promptly took out yearbooks from way back and photographs over the decades, each snippet telling its own story and forming a mosaic of life at XL viewed from his eyes. Speaking of the current batch, he says “CRP is baar bhi achha ho jaye, sabko apne pasand ki naukri mil jaye… hamari taraf se All the Best”.

His affection for XL is apparent in his New Year message to all XLers “Naye Saal ki shubh kaamnayen, and hamein aur XL ko zaroor yaar kariyega… aap jab bhi lautenge, hum yahin honge.

On that note, XLers, here’s wishing everyone a happy 2005… and remember, whenever you come back, XL will still be here.

Author: Abhilasha Krishnan IR 2006

Practical M(AXI)gic

"It’s a frax thing. You get 15 marks for having fun."
- IR Senior

"Baah! Something for people looking to get easy grades."
- BM Senior [fin stud]

"Dekhega kya hoga... "
- BM Senior [my group leader] - in ominous tones, when I reported the above conversation to him.

If anyone had told me that I would be painting thermocol into wee hours at XLRI, I would have looked at that person as if he were demented. Not any more. Last January, I had my first night out even remotely connected with studies - I was busy cutting and painting thermocol for MAXI fair.

If B-Schools are supposed to teach us how to take on the unexpected, then MAXI fair fits the description. Amidst the crepe paper and the other paraphernalia we were learning the basics of time management, setting priorities, team work and thinking out of the box. How to get an Enfield inside the stall? How NOT to get lost inside a maze and look unruffled when ghosts and demons scream and pounce upon you? How to make people smell four kinds of fragrances of soap without them seeing the soap?

MAXI Fair is not just about how to juxtapose a primary school art n' craft class onto market research. It is also about speaking to the common man, the faceless entity categorized as consumer - or customer. It is about listening to old women bored to death, waiting for someone to visit them so that they can talk. It is also about trying to sell tickets going to each home and experiencing, perhaps for the first and last time, how it feels to be a door to door salesman. It is about saying NO politely - like the Controls team did all day long.

When the diro had addressed the batch and said that he did not want computer games and new technology to hijack MAXI fair, the tech junkies amongst us wondered why change was anathema to MAXI. Post the fair, we stand corrected, and feel glad that it will not be another tick-and-click thingy.
For MAXI fair is not just about Marketing Research. It’s just a little bit of commonsense education - the best of its kind.

Author: Surya S IR 2006

We Also Teach Management

1998-99 was the year, when I got – I realized in retrospect – “alumnized”… a term I coined to describe an experiential state of being which is perhaps as impossible to define, as giving a “definition” of “what is sweet” (or, perhaps more appropriately, a definition of “what is heady”). :)

It started as an innocuous co-administrative assignment to be the Alumni Coordinator. And unknowingly, I walked into the unchartered territories of a unique denizen that will get me involved with a kaleidoscope of people and personalities… Over the years, both through official and unofficial interactions (realizing in the meanwhile, that there is nothing “official” about this species), I came to know many of this breed, and gathered a number of “anthropological” insights about XLRI as an institution, and about the community of alumni it nurtures.

The first learning was that, like most MBAs, this is a nomadic crowd. In the first few months, I hit upon an unsettling insight: with 5000+ alumni, if on an average, one XLer relocates once every three years, it worked out to about 4-5 XLers shifting every day!!! This revelation sort of threw the spanner in the works, as far as the pursuit of the holy grail of a centralized alumni database was concerned. Over time, it led to creation of an online network of XLers worldwide… but, OK, that is a different story… some other time…

The second thing I observed was that, in living reality, there was nothing like year-wise batches of alumni. Rather, one was dealing with a pretty close-knit community, in which relationships cut across batches, hierarchies, geographies – and decades. It seemed mysterious, but perhaps the XLers can smell each other out. It must be due to some very strong “genetic code” – whether attitude, jargon, affiliations, body odor, mannerisms, some code-word or whatever – but they connected well – would reach out to each other - even if they had never met earlier. More so, if there was a “cause” to connect around. The cause could be anything: finding a PG
accommodation for the daughter of an XLer one had never met, arranging for Fr McGrath’s residence permit, or pitching in to organize relief work for Tsunami victims.

But perhaps most important insight for me was about the diversity of fauna which XL produces. Like any B-school of stature and standing, XL has its own share of CEOs and senior level professionals in the corporate India and abroad who excel as managers (see a partial list of XLer Indian CEOs at: http://xlalumni.blogspot.com). There are also a reasonable number of XLers who are successful entrepreneurs, are in the civil services as secretaries, toppers, and political advisors, or hold senior level assignments in UN, World Bank, NYSE, etc.

But where else, except from XL, would one find this mixed assortment of B-School graduates, such as:

A mega TV/film star of Tamil screen, who from the beginning, “positioned” himself in the “niche” role of the “father”, since that has a “longest product life”.

A management consultant, who mobilized the local communities to conserve the medicinal plants in Himalayas, and was awarded the prestigious Whitley Conservation Award by the Royal Geographical Society for her work.

An auto-journalist, who makes his living by test-riding two-wheelers, rode through Sahara on a scooter, and finally authored “The Penguin Guide to Two-Wheelers”

The founder of the Glass and Ceramic Society of India, who is invited to conduct workshops on glass artwork in Europe and USA, restored the stain glass windows of St Michael’s Cathedral in Simla, and was invited by French government to restore the stained glass windows on the 12th century church in Troyes.

The activist who organized the 24,000 strong New York Taxi Workers’ Alliance (and the ’98 taxi strike in NYC), who besides teaching in a US university, fights for the rights of the immigrant community representing 80 ethnicities.

The finance graduate, who, after 12 years of corporate life, decided to move into composing jingles for ads, and then to composing and directing film music – and won the National Award for best music for his first film, Nammavar… Sad that he had to leave so early…

The founder-CEO of an HR consulting company, who also got the Eisenhower Award for his continuing work with children of Sivakasi

The group of four, who chucked their jobs in blue-chip companies after a year, to do what they loved doing – out-door trekking… and created a profession around it…

The Customs Officer in the film Saransh, who also wrote Filmfare Award winning screenplays, besides heading a Rs300 Cr Television content company

The Marketing grad, who decided to leave his job in Colombo to literally follow his taste, and become the Connoisseur-in-Residence of how own outlet, the Biriyani Merchant.

The list goes on and on. Surely XL does not produce corporate clones… I am not sure, but my guess is that in the founding document of the institute, there must have been a statement: We Also Teach Management.

Author: Prof. Madhukar Sukla

Dipta Kriti looks at the Batch of ’99

The last year has been traumatic, exhilarating, revealing, happening and also sobering! In the offices of Nariman Point, in the factories of Kxxxx, in the bottling plants of Nxxxx, in the lawns of Brickettwood, in the markets of Bilaspur - we have braved militant trade union leaders, recalcitrant distributors, ghoulish bosses... and even IIMCians - in what has been, for most of us, our first jobs.

But frankly guys, what did we do to change the face of the earth? We didn't get into Mac. We didn't win the XLIIMC. Our photos did not appear in the Business Today. And worst of all, our Placecomm secy did not have a mobile phone! (He had a guitar instead!) But then, ours was not a batch to be featured in India Business Week. We are likelier candidates for Movers and Shakers. Whether as guest, host or band-member is anybody's guess!

We did not change ourselves or XL to be at the top of the world. We got the world to change to suit us... for better or for worse. So, Onida sales bosses have a number in their mobiles stored under the nickname of "Chief". An FMS guy in Pepsi declares he is going to "frax" today. An IIMC girl feels that her boss is a "chussu". And of course, Andersen consultants from the world over chant "1.2.3.4..."

The temptation is great to point out Hrithik Roshan led a procession of cloaked-and-caped, candle-bearing monks (?) before he performed the climax of his debut film! And that Ria Banerjee of "Phir Bhi Dil... " reminds her viewers time and again that everything happen "Just Like That"! But then, we are not charging royalty out here.

However, for all our earth-shattering endeavors, we haven't escaped unscathed either. We will never be able to watch a Sri Lankan boundary without cursing SG. Whenever our comp hangs, we will have this overpowering urge to holler "SOCRRRRAAAAATEEESSSS". We will never taste egg bhurji better than Bishu's. After the Bombay junta asked for a pack of cigarettes from Dadu's for their New Year's party, I realized that even Gold Flake tasted better here!

Connoisseurs have confided that Old Monk in a plastic glass tastes better than Bacardi in a crystal tumbler. And the best discos in the country have not yet matched the sound quality of "Hotel California" that came from the stereos of Indra Sound.

As they say, grass is always greener on the other side... of the JLT.

Author: Dipta Kriti, 1999

Life Out of Process

Explosive PPO (Pre-Placement Offer): n. Stuff which makes you write articles like these for magazines like these.

Accepting an Explosive PPO: v. Stuff which makes you write this extra definition.

It came sometime in the 5th term. Don’t remember the date exactly. The only thing I know is that I have watched 59 movies after that (including 8 movies in a 48 hr span and 3 Korean movies). A yearly growth of 1400% for me. Created an id at IMDB (earth’s biggest movie database). Read the trivia, goofs, memorable quotes, business data (I’m an MBA, remember?), then voted for the movie. They keep a vote history for each user. That’s where I knew the count.

Then there was an article about Taiwan asserting independence. Mainland attacks. Someone fires a few nukes. Ultimately we get conquered. I figured I could get a call center job. So I needed to learn Chinese. Visited some 20-25 sites. Exchanged few mails with Mr. Xang, my Chinese teacher. Guy was damn boring. Maybe all Chinese are. Guess they are so much into mass production that they all sound the same. If you have similar fears about Chinese invasions, contact me. We could do some combined study.

A Bengali friend likes Tamil movies. So a three hour movie runs for six.

Hero: “Naan Unnai Kadhalikkaren” [Pause Movie]

Me: “I love you” [Resume Movie]

Heroine: “Naanum thaan” [Pause Movie]

Me: “Me too” [Resume Movie]

Bengali Friend: Hey, 10 minutes back she said she loved someone else! Your industry sucks. [Pause Movie]

Me: No, wait. Let me explain. She’s doing it to turn him into a new leaf with the ‘power of her love’ (I actually got goose bumps when I said this) [Rewind Movie]

People ask different questions. “Can you see some companies in CRP?” Some give me strange looks when I answer in the negative. “Do you still attend placement PPTs?” This next one unnerved me: “What is the system if someone gets a D in term 6?” Note the clever use of “someone” as against “you”.

Got relegated to the cc: field in e-mails.

This is a sample email I get:

From: Team Lead

To: Hardworker 1, Hardworker 2

cc: Pappu (as I am lovingly called)

Hardworker 1: Find out market share data for Firm 1

Hardworker 2: Find out strategies followed by Firm 2

Pappu: Hardworker 2 will fire the print out after completion tomorrow. Collect it from the printer (on the second floor) and submit it to the Prof.

By the way, we live on the 4th floor.

Feel jealous of people wearing suits. Guess they feel the same about me. Please explain this paradox. Be brief, please. I am a little busy these days.

Author: Praveen Prakash, BM 2005

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=85641

They came, they saw. XLRI had changed a lot from 1979. Buildings on what used to be open spaces... more number of students... a set of new faculty – save one or two- and the descendants of their beloved Kaalu wagging their tails and roaming around JLT. But, the batch of ’79 found out that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

The same old wooden cupboards and cots. The same old JLT. The same CMM Level 6 Precision in dunking.

For the current students, they were not the Corporate Titans that they are in the business world. They were XLers – plain and simple as that. The batch that has beaten IIMC twice. The batch that used to have wet nights whenever a campus canine gave birth. A batch which is young at heart. And more importantly, a promise of what we could be, down 25 years.

The formal interaction started at the Small Audi amidst much enthu. The 79ers were introduced to the current batch by Jude Coelho. They were introduced – as the persons who striked against the mess, the ones who went singing along the corridors, those who were the cool dudes – each person a member of the various species of XLers.

Professor Madhukar Shukla pitched in with his exclusive collection of photographs of the ‘79ers. Convert them to colour, substitute the bellbottoms for hipsters, alter the hairstyles – and we could have sworn that it was a snap of the current batch. The sprit of XLer has remained the same down the decades. They reminisced about the various Professors – from the legendry Father McGrath to the lone lady professor. Each person on the photograph was identified amidst wild cheers – both from the alumni and the present breed of XLers.

Then the senior batch came up with Yaadein, their parting gift to the batch of 2004. A multimedia presentation which chronicles the life of an XLer – or rather, his transition from yet another wannabe CEO to an XLer who says good bye to the Bodhi Tree after two years. During an emotional screening, many were found wiping their tears away – especially among the junior batch!

The official interaction came to an end with the announcement about the alumni cell on campus – a platform to promote interactions between alumni and students. A pleasant surprise was the website that has been put up by the ’79 batch. http://www.xl79.com has details about the ’79 batch, a discussion forum, some amazing photographs of XLRI – and XLers – from 1979 to the reunion days.

Later, the alumni jammed with the Bodhi Tree – the college band – till the wee hours of night. Ms. Priya sang a Malayalam song accompanied by the cheers and Bravos from the South Indians. Then it was time for the XL Anthems – ‘XL Meri Jaan’ and ‘XL ki Kudiyaan’ which the current batched sang while the professors and al umni looked on. And then, it was time to say good bye. The came to the campus as strangers to the current junta, and went back, after
being “the coolest XLers I have ever seen” as a batchmate aptly put it.

Author: Surya S IR 2006