TWO YEARS AT LIBA, A TRIBUTE
by Tony Joseph, March 2003
A tribute
to LIBA, Director, Dean, Management, Faculty members and staff, and of course
to all my dear friends both first years and second years
The waves have subsided, the sea is
calm and the harbour is in sight. The countdown has begun – yes; we have reached the end of an epic
voyage of our lives – the two years at LIBA. The voyage that saw us transformed
from raw graduates to budding managers. By the time this article comes out, it
would have been completed. In a few days we will be boarding the flight to our
future career, carrying with us the hopes and expectations of our loved ones –
armed with the knowledge and values imparted at LIBA.
This is the time to look back at
the two years, which simply flew on the wings of time. A time to gather
memories – memories of the friendships formed, of the days spent together, of
the countless hours of teamwork, of the joys shared and the sorrows divided and
so many other things.
Turing back, the admission interview
and GD is still fresh in my mind. The interview by the panel consisting of Fr.
Christie, Prof. A.C. Fernando and Prof. Lakshmanan was quite exciting at the
same time challenging – I remember being quizzed on the difference between
efficiency and effectiveness of a manager and I am sure I will not forget the
difference between the two in my life.
Walking into the Loyola Campus was
a dream come true for almost all of us. The tall trees , the lush greenery, the
majestic Church and the big buildings – all of them make it one of the best
environments to study in.
Dr. Shivasubramanium and Dr.
Shivasubramanium admirably handled the Induction programme during our first
year in LIBA, with many icebreakers and group tasks. It really helped develop
the rapport among the classmates and laid the foundation for a memorable
two-year association. The first day of the first year started with the BFA case
study by Mrs. Vandana Zachariah. Then came the SWOT analysis conducted by Prof.
Muraleedharan that was our first presentation at LIBA and obviously all of us
were quite nervous. Prof. Lakshmanan’s classes were quite a hit with his SPSS
analysis and jokes – which sent the students busting with laughter, and then we
had the ‘feedback’ sessions of Prof. Srinivasan. Then we had the FoxPro classes
by Mr. Rajeshwar and Mr.Anbalagan , which was really tough for people with no
computing experience. Prof. A.C. Fernando’s classes in Economics was a great
hit with his typical one liners, which made a dry subject like Economics one of
the most eagerly looked forward to classes.
It was a time of exploration –
testing the waters and setting our steps into the world of management. It was
also the time when new bonds and associations were formed and people started
getting to know more about their new colleagues. All through this time the faculty members
took great efforts to make us feel at home and in the process laid the basic
foundation for the next two years.
The
following days went quite fast starting with the freshers’ party – where we had to wear vesthi’s and tie and
the girls had to wear saris and yellow flowers with fully oiled hair. It was
fun with the various games and programmes by the seniors. They were really a
bunch of talented guys and gals. Then came Chrysalis with its share of
excitement and tension – going for
sponsorships, organizing programmes, assisting seniors in their efforts,
printing souvenirs etc. It was a great learning experience for all of us – our
initiation into the area of practical management and the foundation for the
next Chrysalis to be handled by us.
The second semester also saw us
going for the two-day retreat at Ennore- that not only revitalized our souls
but also gave us a refreshing break from the routine, by the silence of the
lazy backwaters of the Ennore creek. The Christmas programme, which followed,
was also a great occasion with a lot of dances, and of course, great dinner.
By now we had got used to the
management school way of life – late night working, surprise quizzes,
presentations at short notice, and of course a truckload of assignments and
projects to be completed in each subject.
Life became even more hectic in the
third semester with the live Marketing Research project under the guidance of
Fr. Director. Balancing both classes and fieldwork – wherein on some days we
worked even after midnight, was quite a challenge. However , we enjoyed each moment of it. Doing
the project for ITC – Greeting Cards I remember how some days was so tiring
that changing clothes before going to sleep itself was a big effort. It was
indeed a great learning experience meeting different people, going to different
places, and of course, working to deadlines set by the company. All these
efforts were rewarded when we made our presentation to the Mr. Chand Das, CEO –
Greeting Cards Businesses, who roundly applauded our work.
The finance papers handled by Prof.
Kejriwal and Prof. Dwarkanathan were a great hit with the students. Prof.
Kejriwal with his inimitable style made finance a highly interesting subject even
for non-commerce students like me, while Prof. Dwarkanathan built up on this
base to convert many non-finance students to finance. Heavy sounding topics
like Assignment model, Transportation model, decision tree etc where made to
look so simple in Fr. Christie’s QT-II classes and it was one of the very
interesting classes of the third semester. Mr. Shivakumar with his anecdotes on
Viveks and Subhiksha gave us our first insight into the world of retailing. The
Prosim game conducted by Dr. Gowrishankar and the great race for the dinner at
Park is legendary. Devi and group eventually won this race.
‘Sayonara- 2002’ our farewell to
our seniors was a memorable occasion with lots of games and nostalgic speeches.
Within a few days, our summer projects began. It saw us going to different
parts of the country and to different types of industries. It was an
opportunity to try out what we had learnt in the first year in the real world
and at the same time learn from the experiences of the people in the industry.
The second year saw a separation of
the class based on our specializations and electives. The frequency of
interactions in the class did reduce. However, we managed to make up for it out
side the class. Chrysalis – 2003 was a watershed in the history of LIBA with
the Corporate Quiz being conducted in three cities - Bangalore,
Hyderabad and
Chennai. Corporate Symposium and a live case study competition were some of the
other highlights. It called for a great amount of hardwork, sacrifices and lots
of optimism. Collecting more than eight lakhs of rupees was a great challenge
before us and we managed to do it with the support and encouragements of so
many people. The first years and second years worked shoulder to shoulder to
achieve a common dream. The dream was realized and the event was a success. The
“Retailing” seminar and the “Corporate Governance” seminars were also great
successes. It was an exhibition of the teamwork and organizing skills of the
students. The retreat at Mahabalipuram was an enriching experience and helped
us recharge our batteries.
On the academic front, Dr. P.K
Panigrahi joined LIBA, and brought about a dramatic change in the computing
environment with his enthusiasm. He has created liking for computing among the
students and this can be seen from overflowing computer labs. The year also saw many external faculty
members tasking classes for us. Each one of them was an expert in his area and
this gave us lot of insights to the real business world. By now, we were more
mature and quite familiar with the management terms and ways. This helped to
gain the maximum from the experience and knowledge of these faculties. The B2B
classes of Mr. Mohan Kuruvilla, the Strategic Management classes of Prof.
Balachandran, the Advanced Marketing Research classes of Dr. M.J. Xavier, the
Marketing in the New Era by Mr. Austin and the Organization Development classes
of Dr. Irudayraj being some of the most well attended classes. We also had
great personalities like Dr. C.L. Ramakrishnan, IPS, former DGP, Tamil Nadu and
Dr. Srinivasa Raghavan, Chief Post Master General taking classes on Business
Ethics and Business Policy respectively. Each of these persons was an
inspiration for us students who are just starting our careers. A galaxy of
guest speakers from throughout the world supplemented this – people of the
levels of MD’s and VP’s sharing their experiences with us.
All this was made possible only by
the tireless efforts of Fr. Director and his vision to make LIBA a premier
institute in India.
Father was an inspiration for us with his total dedication, hard work, and the
continuous stress on perfection. He helped us bring out the best in ourselves
and taught us not to fear the pain or shy away from hard work in the process of
achieving success. I am thankful to him for that great lesson. It will help us
tremendously as we start off on our career paths.
Then of course there were those
exciting competitions, paper presentations, case studies and culturals, with
LIBA students stamping their superiority where ever they went. Then be it be
the CII Meet (Lakshmi, Nandhini and Vinod) or the BIM Paper Presentation
(Rockey, Cyril) or the Smart Manager (Cyril), or the XIME HR Managers Symposium
(Arun, Tony) or the IIMB culturals or Shodh, Nagpur( Ashwin, Arun, Tony) or the
Eithraj and DG Vaishnov Culturals( Julie, Aishwarya and group) – they brought laurels for LIBA, beating the
odds and emerging ‘Top of the Tops’. Our best moment came, after we had
presented our paper to a panel of judges consisting of the Vice Presidents and
HR Mangers of companies like BPL, TITAN, HP, Wipro, 3M etc. Mr. Mahaligam, the
Vice President of Hewellet Packard and an ex-Loyolite came over to us and said
that we had made him proud of being a Loyolite – that was the best compliment
we have got till date, and our hearts swelled with pride.
The placement time was an
unforgettable part of our life at LIBA. The placement team led from the front
by Professor Muraleedharan. The team led by Vinod and consisting of Johny,
Aishwarya, Nandhini, Julie and others ably supported him. The team did a
wonderful job in ensuring that all of us get placed despite the general lull on
the placements front throughout India.
Some of the best companies had lined up for this year’s placements and the full
credit goes to the tireless and dedicated efforts of Professor Muraleedharan.
Finally our group itself was a very
unique and illustrious group. This was the first batch to be selected through
XAT. We had people from different backgrounds, and across the country coming in
a blending perfectly into the environment of LIBA. Each one was a perfect
specimen as Professor Fernando used to tease us. So we have a person whose
feedbacks were much sought after by all (Cyril Chandravasan), someone who can
put Kishore Kumar to shame (Arup), the mimic (Nirmal- the Tiffin
raider, Bangalore
reporter), the vote of thanks specialist
(Lakshmi- ‘Who cant keep her eyes off’). Then we had people who managed
to sleep with their ‘Eyes Wide Open’ (Noreen, Rocky, Mario), the beauty with
brains (Smruthi), model for toothpaste – best smile (Anto), the Charlies Angels
(Susan, Manjusha, Susan), people who were good at jumping trees ( Nandhini),
the grandfathers (Vinod, Ashok), the cat walk of Aishwarya, the Salman Khan clone (
Meiyapppan), the cuckoo ( Kurinji), the Barbie doll ( Meenu), the HR
specialist( Gladys), the smoking tiger( Ashwin), the night watchman ( Jerry),
the story teller ( Banga), the dancing bear( Sirish), the ‘Ice Maiden’ (Roshan), the cartoonists( Jude, Bellphine),
the KAD specialist( Ronald), the Mrs. Doubtfires ( Gayatri, Ambili), the
Rajdhani Express(Devi), the official host of World Cup-2003( Freddy), the
official transporter (Carlton), the
Indira Gandhi in the making(Julie), the Desi American(Anusha), the Desi Brigham
( Kurrulla), the Desi Jet Li( Shiva), the fuming Romeo( Jeffery), Miss
Maraimalai Nagar (Anita Maria, Kurinji), ‘His Holiness’ (Martin), Yani
(Vinay), ‘ Talaiwar’ (John), ,Pizza
expert ( Praddy), the silent killer (Mahesh), Pan Badshah( Mahaveer), Bangalore
reporters( Bellphine, Tony), the chick queen( Nandini V) and so many other unique and lovable
characters. It was really great to be a part of such a group, with not a single
dull moment.
The official countdown began with
the beautiful farewell party – LIBOSCARS organized by our dear first years. It
was a great show, reflective of their talents and a tribute to our yearlong
association, which began with the freshers. By the time the program came to an
end there were quite a few wet eyes and heavy hearts.
In this long voyage called LIFE,
two years are hardly anything, however these two years at LIBA have been
exceptional. It has completely changed our outlook, considerably broadened our
horizons and taught us that nothing is impossible for a person with the right
attitude and a dream to realize. As the
time for our departure nears there is a strong feeling of nostalgia in the air.
The lovely friendships and associations, and of course, a few heartbreaks –
will soon become a part of our memories. These memories are the ones, which
will bind us all together, as we move out in different directions, to different
companies, carrying different dreams.
