An Extraordinary Man

With Sri Raj Mohan Gandhi

Date: 29th June, 2011.

Panchgani.

(Visited the beautiful hill station as part of a program by SIBM. Stayed there for two days and one night. That night I didn't have sleep. Wrote this piece on FB around that time)

Miracles happen!!

Believe me, they do.

There was a time when I read "My Experiments With truth-M.K.Gandhi".

It was like a mirror.

So plain, so clear.

As if there was nothing to hide,

As if it was you who was addressed in that book,

The sweetness in the pain that you go through- just for the sake of your principles when all the world is looking at you and thinking "What a fool!!"

The depth of passion that you feel when all the hardships are fighting right against you, and you are well aware that your cause is worth fighting for.........

So what if you don't believe in his principles?

He may just be a weak man physically but his was one of the 'Strongest Souls' that was ever born on earth.

I couldn't help but weep while reading some pages from that book.

The next time (and every time from then onwards!) when I saw his statue in M.G.Bus Stand (Hyderabad),  I went to him........

In great humility I prayed him (God, I'm a strong agnostic!) "Please give me a fraction of the strength you had."

And here, on 28th June,2011,  at Panchgani I had the opportunity to shake hands with Mr.Raj Mohan Gandhi (grandson of Gandhiji).

And to tell you something- this was an amazing person.

The right person to bear the surname.

What a great man he was!

What a huge knowledge he has!

At last when asked to write one principle which he held all his life,

He wrote, "Ravi do everything for another person and for God".

One Memorable Day at SIBM

 Date: 19th June,2011

Place: Lavale, Pune.

(I wrote this article during my early days of the MBA. Interaction with great people during induction period, breath-taking beauty of the campus, and above all a great opportunity to learn were making me quite unsettled  with excitement and exuberance.) 

Symbiosis  Campus on a night.

How do you feel if you have to submit analysis (and solutions!) on two cases (one about an American Shampoo Company launching shampoos in India, other about the financial viability of Volvo buses) of which u know nothing about just on the 6th day classes start at your B-School?

Well suppose you are a branded "JNTU seed batch candidate"-known for the notorious ability to study for hours, you would work well into the midnight (or early morning I should say-it was 2.30am) before the submission day...........

You scribble your ideas, propositions and whatever the B.S (not 'Business Strategy', here B.S stands for "Bull Shit"!) that your (dirty) brain can think of on some ten pages, then spend hours managing to cram it into a single page (one side of A4 sheet, for each case), fumble with MS Excel (it was the 1st time for u to work over an Excel sheet in your life) and prepare a sheet with all the calculations, and at last minute u start hurrying to the class............

As usual you skip breakfast (for the third time consecutively!) and manage to enter the class a good 10seconds before it starts.

Then the real story starts.

When the professor explains how wrong and deadly your ideas can be to a company, and without any pity thrashes aside all your ideas and analysis.......you find yourself staring into all the pages of your analysis and ask yourself "Shit man, Am I dumb to this extent?? Isn't there a single good thought that came to my mind???"

Well, class was over. Tired (exhausted!), frustrated and anyway with a feeling that after all you found some 10 ways that won't work in Business you returned to your room and unconsciously fell into a deep sleep......

40 minutes into the sleep, all of a sudden your mobile bells like a siren in hell!

Call from college office.

Summoned to be there in "The Registrar's Office", in ten minutes with a photograph of your damn handsome face!!

"Ye kya hua! Did I do any mistake during certificate submission?"

Hoping that there wasn't anything wrong u hurry back to The office...........

There in the registrar's office you see a magnanimous person (you wonder why you feel like that!) sitting in the chair of Registrar (Mr.Anand Singh, the Registrar).

"Om sai ram, god please see to my problem. Don't make him mad at me"

Praying to your favorite god, you ask in the humblest and the most sincere way you could sound, "Excuse me sir, I'm Ravi Garlapati,may I come in??"

He looks up,smiles (God, Is this a good sign!?) and says "Yes".

Once you enter he takes out a form and giving it says,

"Congrats (!?)

You are (one of) the topper(s) of SNAP (Highest scoring person who has joined in any Symbiosis Institutes)

Symbiosis International University offers a scholarship to u. Fill this form and bring it here."

BINGO!!!!!!

At last some respite (and not in small level. You only know how badly you need those bucks)

You knew all along that u could be among the toppers, but now that it's "Official"

Sipping hot tea (to be frank-it really tastes good), seeing the sun descending behind Lavale hills (Pune)

U say "What a day it's been!"

Thank you SIBM,

for everything.