Men of Honor

It was the day of the Soap-Box. I had major plans for the day. I thought I will be the traditional politician - wear a dhoti, white shirt and black glasses. Just for the fun part of it. But plans changed due to lack of time. Maybe some other day.

I was a bit late to the Presentation. So, I missed the introduction - when the whole stage was being set and the rules were being laid out.

Each candidate was given 10 minutes to present what they had in mind and then there will be a rapid fire question round.

When one candidate was delivering his speech, the others were expected to stay out of the Auditorium because rapid fire questions had to be repeated for each one of them.

Mr.Personality was the first one to begin. Starting off in a very calm and composed manner, he made himself clear on a number of issues. For a moment I thought that there were too many things on his agenda and I almost ruled out that he was going to ask for excess time. But things ironed out a bit and came to good finish.

Rapid fire questions were about favorite political leader, business leader, non-political or business and things like that.

Next came Mr.Consultant. Consultant was not happy about the fact that there were just two candidates before he decided to be the third one. His views were that the Student Body was not being fully represented by just these other two candidates. Fair Enough - only to an extent. His presentation was more or less to the same effect of the previous candidate. I felt that the focus was more towards academic issues, which is also good.

Last person to present his case was Mr.Passion. The way the whole thing started off with Mr.Passion was very good. It took me time to understand that he was actually conveying his views on a variety of issues in the form of a story. But, as time passed, people got restless and also the story began to drag. It felt like someone was spinning a yarn.

Anyway, all of us appreciate that the three people who came on stage had the courage to do so. Hence, a big salute to all your efforts.

All of us were surprised that the three of them chose the same non-political/business leader.

And two of them did not know Reena Lamba!!! If someone wanted to make a one-minute decision as to whom to vote, then they should consider the candicate whose answer to this question was right. I think one did not know the person and the other one made a guess that this Lamba was one of those Archer Lamba's.

Common issues that were addressed by all candidates was the way academics worked.

I wonder why no one proposed that they would work with the Institute to make the ISB MBA a two-year program. That would have been revolutionary.

Suggestions like e-learning, more international stuff were key points.

Everyone talked about food. But what the hell is wrong with the food? The only problem with the food is the strange names that we have for the same items. Thats the fun part. The serious problem I have seen is the way the logistics is being handled. That might be a place to improve. But the food is definitely good. A bit of oil can be reduced. Otherwise, changing prices for meals or cutting down stuff, allowing students to change plans as and when required is definitely a bad idea. First of all, its not cost effective. And Sarovar is not a charity organisation to provide food at subsidized rates.

Ideally, the loan each person has taken should factor in the food too. We call ourselves part of an International Business School and we are not prepared to spend even one dollar per meal?

And imagine yourself running Sarovar. If we implemented all what the students wanted, then I will guarantee you that you will freak out within a month and call it quits.

Extra coffee machines and maybe an ALL NIGHT CANTEEN will benefit a lot of people.

I can also agree to the fact that the Convenience Store is totally inconvenient. This point was made by one of the candidates and this issue can be looked at more seriously.

Health - yes. One thing ISB should do is write a small paragraph about Chicken Pox in the Admissions Letter so that people will be prepared for it when they land up here. This shouldnt be a total surprise.

So thats pretty much what happened today evening. The audience had a lot of questions. Though the answers werent too convincing (I should also mention the fact that some of the candidates actually did not understand the question and were totally deviating), the three of them managed a good show.