Alumni Meet- 2011

There was a distinct aura embezzled in humid air of Chennai on 20^th August. For once the small family at IFMR whole heartedly got entangled into woven fabrics of love and affection spraying all over them in bulk. Erstwhile heroes, mesmerizing faces and vibrant smiles intoxicated the whole environment. Every face had a story to tell what they have been up- to all these days, but the parity was that sad grin expressing “oh wish I would have been here now- why did it all end so fast”.

Effervescence and sense of achievement was percolating all over as our beloved alumni received their degrees from the podium which catapulted yet another batch of talented management professionals into highly challenging corporate environment. For the first time the reunion canvas moved beyond the campus and a grand party was organized at Ambassador Pallava, Egmore at 8 pm. There was certain nervous excitement in the air as it symbolized the union of past and present IFMRIANS at one place. Various fun -filled events kick-started the party and set the tempo to a level which just got better and better the whole night.

The party started with recitation of tongue-twisters by alumni randomly picked from the audience. Even this simple game had audience involved deep into it and touched upon various management concepts like on the feet thinking and pressure handling. The next event had audience in splits as it involved literal translation of flashy mid-90s Hindi songs to English. It led participants to revisit memories as one of the Batch 5 member –one of our esteemed alumni also participated in the event. For once everyone in audience wanted the event to never end as it brought back memories and innocent fun they had in IFMR.

Dedications were pouring in from various corners in the audience with people venting out their unsaid feelings through medium of melodious tunes. The love and cajoling, the blushes, the pain of separation, the never ending goodbyes and those moist eyes- all the emotions were on display. This was followed by breath-taking dance performances by Batch 12 reminding others how proud they were to be associated with such a lovely IFMR family.

There were few speeches; notable among them was of Mr. Amit Gupta from Batch 5. He spoke in length about what it feels like to be from the first batch of Financial Engineering and how terribly he misses the learning mode which he experienced at IFMR.  The appreciation from crowd in form of loud thundering claps in sync were proof enough how much every single soul there connected to the speech.

Innovation continued and for the first time Yearbook was introduced carrying memoirs of batch 10 and how they felt about each other. Yearbook was a bible to whatever the batch has done for 2 years, their emotions and relationships nurtured by them over the period. A video followed containing clips of alumni speaking about how they feel about IFMR and various other things wrapped into IFMR ecosystem.

The surprise package of the meet came in form of an event which unfurled a young rapper from batch 12 onto the stage and he rapped away in glory involving everyone in the mesmerizing performance of his. The popped collar, the tilted cap and the nonchalance in the voice electrified the atmosphere as he picked up random people from audience to jam alongside him. For a moment it felt like Eminem has just announced his arrival in grand style at IFMR. Awestruck would be the only word which would come to anyone’s mind if you mention about his performance. The participation was amazing something which comes very naturally to IFMR management professionals.

Networking was at the forlorn while munching dishes were being served at dinner. There were so many stories to talk about, too many events to catch up. The party came to an end with a group dance sending out a message that though we are sad that our alumni are not there with us anymore in the campus but their memories live on and how happy we are to see them scaling such great heights in their professional careers.  No matter how much ever is the physical distance between us, but there will always be an emotional connect. This campus will always tell their stories in some way or they would be with us in some form always. IFMR is indeed close to our hearts and will always be.

As it has been said “Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost”. This is not the end; just the beginning. The next chapter will resume in Mumbai soon and yet again we will revisit all such emotions. We would like to thank all those alumni for taking time out of their busy schedules and gracing us with their presence. We would also like to thank everyone who were part of this great occasion and brought it to such level. And lastly we are highly indebted to IFMR for giving us such lovely people to work for.  Signing off for now and promising to meet you all very soon

Alumni Committee

Finquizitive’11 Event Report

Marking the start of the finance club events of IFMR, the first event for the academic year 2011-12 , FINQUIZITIVE’11 ,an intra-college finance quiz was conducted on 16^th of August , 2011. The event aimed at creating awareness regarding finance and related topics amongst IFMR students. The students were tested on various areas of finance. The theme was focused on financial knowledge and awareness about current business scenario of India as well as world economy.

The event was conducted in two rounds:

     A.PRELIMS:

The students had a screening round containing 20 objective questions.

21 teams (teams of 2) participated and the top 5 teams were selected for the main round

B. MAIN ROUND :

The main round contained 4 sub-rounds.

1. Question answer round: Students participated in teams (two per team)

2. Buzzer round - 5 Questions were asked and the teams were given points in “first to hit the buzzer” style.

3. Audio-visual round –This sub round again had 5 questions which were clippings of videos and related questions.

4. Rapid fire round: Each team was given 90 seconds to answer the question set.

AUDIENCE ROUNDS: There were 3 rounds for the audience and there was overwhelming response from the audience as well.

Towards the end of the brainstorming quzzing the winners of the FINQUIZITIVE’11 were declared.

1^st prize: Rakesh Adiga and Nikhil Goenka

The team was awarded a cash prize of Rs.1500

2^nd prize: Shyam sundar

3^rd prize: Hitesh and Faisal

The event got fantastic support and received appreciation from one and all. 

LIFE @ IFMR from the eyes of a new joiner

“Two roads diverge in a yellow wood

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler…………”

These lines of Robert Frost exactly depict my dilemma of which Bschool to choose from other offers I had before I joined IFMR. My intuition and passion for finance made me zero in on IFMR. Though my decision to join IFMR was from my heart, there was always a feeling of intimidation at the right corner of my auricle about my decision.

Having never lived in a hostel before, I was apprehensive about the type of life it would expose me to…but all of my apprehensions were soon put to rest, because of the warm welcome I received. IFMR received me like a long lost prodigal daughter and took care of every of my needs so well, that within a span of only a month it has become not my “Second” home, but rather my “home”.

If you want to have a glimpse of “Incredible India” instead of running around the length and breadth of this country, try and spend a few hours here at the luxurious green campus: you will find people from all parts of the country: north, south, east and west peacefully co-existing. Bright young minds, brimming with new thoughts and actions, makeup a mélange of beautiful company

Finally it was the first day @ IFMR (July 1)-a day to start building my destiny towards a management career. Even after years of school, college and corporate life it was in no way different from my day one at kindergarten, haunted by the feeling of alien land (except that I dint cry out loudly). But I dint ever imagine that this alien land would make me feel like home in less than a week. The small cozy campus which made me complain previously is now the peaceful place which I love. A walk at the boulevard and campus especially at night gives me a sanguine sense of comfort and calmness. And the next best part is the liberty which we as a student get to express our views, problems and demands to the management who are quick to act instantly. Also the subjects are handled with a practical approach which acts as a strong foundation for our career. The professors here are amiable and are approachable without any second thought. In a nutshell, the students are solely responsible to shape up their future and there is no force feeding of things that are against our will. The different kinds of clubs and committees ranging from the core finance club to the creativity club helps to improve our knowledge tree by engaging us in various sorts of activities. And the nitty-gritty is they help creating a strong bond between the students through team work. To cap it all, I find that the seniors over here guide us in an extremely friendly manner and they make us feel them like our buddies than seniors. And the most fun-filled part is the hostel and its nocturnal life. From evening cricket, Night badminton, midnight maggi to graveyard shift studies, it’s a place which would make us reminisce in the rest of our life. In short, Life @ IFMR is completely driven by students and one would feel respected and dignified as a student here. Whoever comes to the campus will observe a huge banyan tree with its prop roots covering a large area forming a canopy at the centre of the campus. And I feel it as an epitome of synergy between the institution and its students. The prop roots symbolizing the students, support the main trunk, which is the institution and in course of time prop root becomes indistinguishable from the trunk and the tree as a whole expands and reaches a greater height. Thus we students like prop roots would always strive hard to create an unique brand name to IFMR standing by the lines of Robert Frosts lines in Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening                   

And I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

- Arthy

                                                     

                                       

About the Author:

Arthy is currently pursuing Post Graduate Diploma in Management ( PGDM) from  Institute For Financial   Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai. She is an elegant, impressive and humorous blogger who writes articles ranging from random personal stuffs to social deterrents. She is an appealing poet and lover of nature who pens poems that are metaphorical in nature. She is a painter and enjoys drawing caricatures.                    

                                                                                          

                                                                             

                                                                           

Gully Cricket Tournament

The Sports Club of IFMR (B-Sportive) organized a gully cricket tournament. Rules of the game were quite different and strange, as in hitting the walls directly was out, concept of dummy runner etc. But these rules were quite well known to the students, some even having attained tags like “boom boom Afridi” or “Mr. Dependable”. In total 10 teams participated in the event and each team had 6 players.  Names of the teams were quite interesting: “sons of pitches”, “gusto”, “sumo cricketers”, “deccan kings” etc.

All teams played with very high passion and enthusiasm. We had the privilege to witness many close matches. Those who were not participating also showed lot of interest, with a healthy audience present.

The final was between “Sons of Pitches” and “Deccan Kings”. It was a very tight match, but in the end deccan kings chased the score and won the tournament.

Because of such a high response for gully cricket tournament, the sports club will be organizing gully cricket champions league soon.

Fresher's Party for Batch 12

The 12th PGDM batch of IFMR enjoyed a very warm official welcome to the IFMR family on 5th
Aug ’11 at Dee Cee Manor, T-Nagar. The Freshers’ Party was organized by the 11th batch to bridge the
junior-senior divide, and to kick-start an eventful and enjoyable journey called “MBA” that we would
remember all our lives. The theme of the party was “Bollywood”, and all of us freshers were expected to
put on our coolest threads to impersonate our favorite actor or actress.

We all assembled at the venue by about 7 p.m and the seniors kept pouring in till much later. We
were so enthralled by the ambience and the decor of the banquet hall, that the initial time was spent
in endless photo sessions with friends, batch mates and seniors. Once most people had arrived, the
program started with a few song dedications from freshers to: the first friend we made, to the person
we admire, to the “hot chick”, to the “handsome dude” and so on…. Most of these came as a surprise,
and all of us enjoyed a good laugh watching the most unexpected people grooving to the music.

These song dedications were actually interspersed throughout the program which we- as freshers had
practiced and prepared. The first performance was that of the skit which had only male actors. It was
a hilarious act- thoroughly enjoyed by the audience who were hooting and cheering till the curtain
came down! This was followed by entertaining dance performances by couples as well as groups,
spanning various genres such as freestyle, hip-hop, contemporary, salsa and Bollywood. A small group
of trained vocalists from the new batch performed a melodious mix of Hindi and Tamil songs, to which
we all tapped our feet. The seniors had organized some fun games like a rapid-fire session about life
and people at IFMR. Some freshers were rapidly called upon to participate, and this event was widely
enjoyed because funny secrets were revealed, and surprising truths discovered about life at campus and
the students.

What followed was an elaborate spread of Mughlai and Chinese cuisine for dinner, which we all relished
immensely. More popular than the food turned out to be the delicious dessert- gulab jamun coupled
with scoops of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. One of the last events before the dance party
was the distribution of prizes such as- “The Best Dressed Fresher”, “The Best Dancer”, “The Winner of
the Rapid Fire”, “The Best Ice-breaker Introduction Mail”, and of course- the most prestigious awards
of”Mr Fresher” and “Ms Fresher”. Mr. Fresher and Ms Fresher then walked the ramp, encouraged by
our cheering and loud applause.

The dance floor was then declared free, which most of us were dying to burn down with our dance
moves to popular tracks and the lively, upbeat music. Everyone enjoyed the dancing and head banging
to the fullest. As all good things come to an end, our show ended with the cake-cutting ceremony which
marked our official welcome to the IFMR family. A slice each of the chocolate truffle cake was greatly
savored after sweating it out on the dance floor. We all came back to college- elated at having put up a
great show, excited to have shown our talent to everyone, happy at having made a new friend or two,
and pleased to have gotten a chance to know the seniors better than we did before the party.

Apparently, that was not the end! On returning back to the hostel, we had been invited to another in-
house dance party in the college premises. The DJs from both the batches made us all sway to the music

played by them. It was about 3 in the morning, when we were all finally made to return to the hostel
and call it a night!