Hi, friends…it was just after the laurels of NIST & CSIR, I having recently seen death so closely…। (I shouldn’t B alive). God knows why this happened to me? But I surmise I was saved for a special reason may b for something big or even bigger. This is a story of 3 friends who were in a state of mind that they din’t want to die unnoticed.” It’s a story of 3 friends who took risk, redefined the notion i.e. “You don’t need to be at the best place to do the best thing” & how their lives changed.
.
All this started with Vidya (I know she ll be happy to see her name huh!). Last year, I was in 2nd year & she was my branch jr. then, she asked me to join her @ IIT-kgp’s Annual Techfest “KSHITIJ’07”. But unfortunately I wasn’t interested, I even dint care about this festival it was just a fiddlestick for me. But again I had my mid-sems at the same time so it was a nice reason to say ‘NO’. She had told me to visit the site www.ktj.in & find out the updates, after I met her in puja Vaccations of 2007. Coz this time, I was in the 3rd Year & had promised to join her @ IIT.
.
I returned to college, where the flame of renaissance taking the shape of an inferno inside me. For I always said to myself “its been Too…much of nonsense activities since 2 years of engineering…now I don’t want to waste the remaining 2 years , I want to do something” or as Mrinal Says “I don’t want to die unnoticed.” Meanwhile Kiran, a true friend of mine approached me to participate in Kshitij’08. He called upon me & we went to hostel to check the website.
.
I too broke out about Kshitij to Vikash Sir & Mrinal. We then started browsing the site; you won’t believe we had to muster for more than 3 hours just to find the suitable event where we can fit in. For the very first time we were experiencing such standards which epitomizes itself. It was a really superb & mind boggling experience for us, the Kshitij website. After much moil we ended up with 2 events of our caliber the “EUREKA” & the “B-PLAN”. EUREKA- the technical paper presentation contest, which was something we all felt that we can qualify. But the B-PLAN was really elusive for it had 48 judging parameters. It was a management contest which was open to all engineering & B-Schools all over INDIA & abroad including IIMs & IITs… after all it’s an IIT- buddy... So planning’s begun on the hostel-roof. We were like “kya Karen, kismen jaayen ?” Then Mrinal suggested an option of meeting Jeevan Sir, XIMB who is a full time senior faculty @ CSREM, Paralakhemundi. Mrinal knew him when he was in the hostel in the summers & Jeevan sir was here since the inception of CSREM. So we went to meet him & the response was overwhelming…he was happy to meet us & really impressed by us for we had CSIR award in our hands. He felt that our Project or say product “MPPG” (Off-Grid Micro Power Generator) was something which is sellable. He encouraged us that we should go for it.
.
Analyzing it we discussed & we had a brain storming session within us: me, MRINAL & VIKASH sir. I was really interested to go for it, but Mrinal was like: it’s going to be tough; all the 48 judging parameters gave us the feel that it may b possible but may not be in the delineated time. We also had semesters @ the time when the submission were scheduled. I still remember the submission was on 16th Dec. & the sems commenced from 18th Dec. So it was a tough fight of time b/w the papers & B-PLAN. After a horrendous brain storming session of 2 days were came to the conclusion that we are “ON” for the B-PLAN & the EUREKA as well. I remember Jeevan sir resolved my anxiety & confusion in a very simple way he said, “From this point of your career, you cannot become 9.0 pointers all of a sudden nor you can collapse ending up being 5.0 pointers, so it’s the time to deliver, go for it.” This one line ended up all my confusion that percolated through my mind & heart. So full time we were ON for this B-PLAN contest. We knew we had to work very hard as it was a complete alien stuff for all of us; way ahead from the technical stuffs. It was something which is B-School culture, so to catch up to that standard we had to really crack nuts & we were preparing ourselves for it. This commitment meant giving up the sems for the contest; it was not like leaving the papers instead it was like giving the full time to this B-PLAN & not to the worries about the semester. If at all we have to read for semester we knew we needed a strategic time-out.
.
Thus started a legendary journey of success! That point of time I was in the 1st floor right wing in room no-212 with Ullas & Puru Sir. Vikash sir was in room-211, so it was a perfect resonance for me. So after the 3rd mid-sem classes were over & we had official holidays to study for the semester (5th semester). 3rd Year Electrical Engineering is the toughest in BPUT just the way it is @ IIT-Kanpur...; (I don’t know Satish our frined from IIT-Kanpur, IIM-B told us!). We were under the sheer guidance & leadership of Vikash Sir. Packed up my laptop geared up with Vikash sir, Mrinal & we (budding entrepreneurs) were on the way to CSREM to be with Jeevan Sir. He was our only hope we knew if at all we can do something we have to learn everything from him. He started mentoring us, first he made us understand all the parameters & then how are they interlinked. All the parameters would appear same for a new-bie, but that’s not always. IT was very important for us to understand each & every parameter to the fullest if we had to be selected. We had our short-term goal; to clear the screening & get into the top 20 teams to be shortlisted by the judges. Mentoring started & he asked us to start writing bcoz that’s the only way we can end-up with the Executive Summary (final dossier of 4 pages to be submitted). So we started writing & collecting data. Another sheer problem we had to face was with the intermittent supply of internet connectivity. As I had already described about our narcissistic principal Dr.C.V.Gopinath (the real bastard) came up with his atrocity & fucking set of rules & destroyed the student culture @ JITM. He laid-off the internet connection during the college hours i.e. from 9am-5pm, for he thought this would encourage students to attend the classes regularly. Now this is ridiculous we are no longer toddlers that you need to tell us when to attend class & how to study. Anyway! You are troubling us in the end for the shortage of attendance (even for the genuine reason). We were in dire need of this internet connection because for fresher’s like us internet & google is like GOD we could learn a lot from internet, collect data, interact with persons in the same genre, get to know more about B-PLAN how to initiate how to start writing. Jeevan sir was very clear in his approach; he mentored us, clarified our doubts & taught us the way how to write & how to initiate. He made corrections but ensured that it’s we who end-up writing the Executive Summary. Everyday we got up in the morning pack-up the laptop & we three get out to CSREM everyday to work on our B-PLAN. We sat in the library discuss among ourselves, started wiring & got it validated from Jeevan Sir. Meanwhile we came across ALOK sir, XIMB classmate of Jeevan Sir; now room-mates. Even working with Jeevan sir was not that easy, he’s such a busy person. So we interacted with ALOK sir whom VIkash sir knew very well. Man!! He’s a great guy to work with. We approached him & he too started mentoring us.
.
Now we had 2 great mentors JEEVAN & ALOK sir, XIMB who were our GURU’s for the B-PLAN that’s why I say that this journey changed my life. When you have such great teachers, I feel it’s the biggest asset you have earned in life. So when Jeevan Sir was busy we sat with Alok Sir & veice-versa. There were times when both couldn’t spare time with us so this was the most difficult situation for us because we had our doubts piling like heaps & we were helpless. We then understood the value of time, value of person, value of hard-work & the value of quality. See this is something we silently started learning from them, it was just a beginning but we have miles to go. We then did our home-work, we knew that they can give us a modicum of their time so we learnt that we need to be more specific in our approach & plan. We lacked the basic writing skill-set then Jeevan sir told us to stop playing with words & start writing the fact & we did gave it a decent try. We were mentored for about half-an hour & we jot down all the details so that we can formulate it later. In the night we all sat together in my room with me centered with laptop; Vikash sir & Mrinal sat on both the sides making a semicircle poking our heads into the arduous but interesting task. We 3 discussed the details, formulated it, checked whether we all are satisfied & thus we finished writing out the parts one by one.
.
Executive Summary Parameters:
a. Outline of the business concept.
b. Identification of Market Opportunity.
c. Market Plan: Strategy for addressing demands and competition.
d. Economics, profitability and potential returns including timeframe for achieving cash flow positive.
e. Risk Mitigation and Business Sustainability.
f. Intellectual property status.
g. Capital Requirements.
h. Exit Strategy.
.
We have finished the Outline of the business-concept thus phase-by-phase we were writing up the other parts. When we started writing we could feel our confidence got a bootstrap as we could see things getting done in time. We now got some gyaan on the parameters, then we invoked all the other details available on the internet with the data, made right selections & thus formulated the stuffs. We were getting things right, we were on the track but sometimes there were blunders too, after all its B-PLAN contest.
.
ALOK sir indeed helped us a lot. Later phase of this B-PLAN Jeevan Sir got too busy & it was very difficult for him to get some time for us. But AlOk sir anyways managed to give us sometime. What a way to deal, the way he explained us the parameters it was so crystal clear; there wasn’t even a flake of doubt for the things he explained us. Thus we collected & formulated the stuffs got it cross-checked & validated by ALOK sir. He pointed out our mistakes & thus we knew where to make corrections & how to corroborate, substantiate & underpin.
.
T.Patrick Walsh from University of Illinois came to our college JITM to undergo a pilot project for his LED lantern. He was teamed-up with Vikash Sir & his group to carry out the R&D project. Patrick & Vikash sir were the winner of the Mondialogo Engineering Award in collaboration with UNESCO organized by Daimler, got huge sum as seed funding. He too participated in the B-PLAN contest organized by the Oxford University & won the contest. He shared his business-plan dossier, which became a perfect reference for us…Thanks Patrick ! With so much in our hand we became unstoppable. We felt like things were turning on our favour for we were honestly dedicated to our B-PLAN. We finished parameter A), B), C) with ease. The next section proved to be a bottle-neck for us which included Cash-flow projections, break-even & pro-forma balance sheets. These were the financial analysis on a large-scale which was fiddly & challenging. For this domain…we had to move on with our economics teacher Anita Patra mam who is an expert in financial analysis. She’s been with JITM since 9 years before she moved on to CSREM & now she’s a full time faculty there. She welcomed us & appreciated our move to aim for IIT she too promised us to give her 100% & she did. She helped in making the cash flow projections, pro-forma balance sheets & finally the break-even chart in MS Excel (we dint knew that) she said this much would seal our position & we were confident to get into the top 20 list. After two & a half days of analysis with Anita Mam our financial section became rock solid. Now we moved on with ALOK & JEEVAN sir for the rest.
.
Everyday it became our routine, we got-up, packed my laptop & marched on to CSREM to work on the B-PLAN. Moreover CSREM had wireless N/W so we had full time internet connectivity during our work. Days passed working the way everyday…while our friends were going through tough books of Electrical Machines, Microprocessors, Control System & many more. We had nothing in our mind by that time it was only B-PLAN & B-PLAN running through our mind. Our peers silently commented us, it was like “Where do you march on everyday with a laptop…buddy its exam time!” The simple answer was “yaar! We are busy”. We dint had morsel of time to study because in the morning we discussed it with ALOK sir, Jeevan Sir & Anita MAM; Night time we made our typical semicircle in my room & continued the good work late night until it was bed time: may b around 1am-2am daily. Every day we were moving on nicely with our Executive Summary but that badly on the other hand with our semester preparation which was getting really crappy. Semester was approaching so did the submission deadline. After spending a month of intense & focused hard work we got our Executive Summary done but wasn’t explicit. We needed some crafting & editing.
.
We wasted a whole day of work day only to calculate the income tax i.e. 30% of corporate tax but at last came to the conclusion that for SSI we have relaxation from Govt. Of Orissa & all the calculations were again reverted back. It was really tiring so is the financial analysis. We also met the chief of SSI, Orissa & talked about our B-PLAN he too guided us with a very nice concept i.e. if the % of production for achieving the break-even is less that 50% (preferable is 40%) the business is profitable. We used this concept & was very helpful in the final presentation. He also asked us to send our Executive Summary, but we were becoming professionals & we realized the value of Intellectual Property & thus we decided not to share anything about the B-PLAN with anybody except our mentors & so we did. All these were great learning experiences.
.
Bad times also tried to stop us; like we got a message that Vikash Sir’s dad is ill & is admitted in hospital for some unidentified problem & he had to move urgently leaving everything aside. We too were very sad with this news & we wanted him to leave soon. I accompanied him in the morning upto Palasa station.
Slowly but firmly we started to feel the pressure, because the work was not designed for 2 people & the absence of Vikash Sir was felt badly. Mrinal came up with his idea of adding a new member to our group & he had the name of a girl this time, for he wanted to make our group complete..so he approached me the name Shweta. I agreed! Now we became again 3 & ON. But this time there was a difference than the previous group. She can never match up the void created by Vikash Sir.
.
By God’s grace Vikash Sir was back & everything was okay @ home & here too. With his return we were back with a bang; now we were a team of 4. The preparation was a real test of attitude & someone dint match up the level which we had set. We took this B-PLAN preparation on to our soul & we expected the same from our new member, but…Anyway! With some atrocities in the approach we managed everything.
.
But Jeevan Sir was very enthusiastic with the new member’s entry. I guess he always tried to impress her by his humor & very friendly nature. He was more interested…haha!
.
By the time Vikash sir had to move on to Mumbai for his award ceremony organized by the Mondialogo Community which came on such a nice time. We planned to get our Executive Summary checked by Patrick, which Vikash sir carried in a pen-drive to Mumbai. He & Patrick edited our Executive Summary. Now our 4 page dossier was ready for the final submission. We too reviewed the editing; it was short, precise, seemed more accurate than before. So finally we were ready with our final submission.
The only thing left was validation by our director D.N.Sir, IIM-C. So we went to him with our plan & we got a very good response. He reviewed the plan & was satisfied with the work. Thus a silent confidence rumbled through our hearts. I cant say how much this feel boosted our confidence, getting validated by someone who is itself a BRAND (IIM-C). We have learnt a lot from him & we owe our achievements to him too.
.
Thus with all the hard-work, toil, risk, expert validations, brain-storming sessions & 1 wrong choice our B-PLAN executive summary was finally over.
You wont believe me if I say you that the database of IIT-KGP isn’t fool-proof , yeah! Its true they have been trying to reach us & were calling some one called Mrinal from Patna & Abhishek from Kolkatta & asking them to submit the technical paper abstract by the deadline. We had registered for the events with our contact numbers & e-mail but still they had such mis-interpretations. We came to know this after we called them personally before that we were expecting the call from IIT, but…at last it was all a hunky-dory. We then called the so called Mrinal & Abhishek from Patna & Kolkatta & warned them…huh! (karna padta hai yaar !!) After all it was done with great hard-work.
.
Thus the submissions deadline was 16th Dec & guess what the semesters were scheduled from 18th Dec…huh! Hope U know the engineering way…the last 15 days are the Einstein Days when no body wastes a modicum of their time but we were busy in our own way…of course the semester preparations were on but were not that comfortable as before…we had scarified our semesters but by God’s grace everything was okay !
.
I was given the charge of attending all the computer works & my laptop (IBM-Thinkpad) is truly a legend. I ll tell you how? Later…
To be continued……..
.
All this started with Vidya (I know she ll be happy to see her name huh!). Last year, I was in 2nd year & she was my branch jr. then, she asked me to join her @ IIT-kgp’s Annual Techfest “KSHITIJ’07”. But unfortunately I wasn’t interested, I even dint care about this festival it was just a fiddlestick for me. But again I had my mid-sems at the same time so it was a nice reason to say ‘NO’. She had told me to visit the site www.ktj.in & find out the updates, after I met her in puja Vaccations of 2007. Coz this time, I was in the 3rd Year & had promised to join her @ IIT.
.
I returned to college, where the flame of renaissance taking the shape of an inferno inside me. For I always said to myself “its been Too…much of nonsense activities since 2 years of engineering…now I don’t want to waste the remaining 2 years , I want to do something” or as Mrinal Says “I don’t want to die unnoticed.” Meanwhile Kiran, a true friend of mine approached me to participate in Kshitij’08. He called upon me & we went to hostel to check the website.
.
I too broke out about Kshitij to Vikash Sir & Mrinal. We then started browsing the site; you won’t believe we had to muster for more than 3 hours just to find the suitable event where we can fit in. For the very first time we were experiencing such standards which epitomizes itself. It was a really superb & mind boggling experience for us, the Kshitij website. After much moil we ended up with 2 events of our caliber the “EUREKA” & the “B-PLAN”. EUREKA- the technical paper presentation contest, which was something we all felt that we can qualify. But the B-PLAN was really elusive for it had 48 judging parameters. It was a management contest which was open to all engineering & B-Schools all over INDIA & abroad including IIMs & IITs… after all it’s an IIT- buddy... So planning’s begun on the hostel-roof. We were like “kya Karen, kismen jaayen ?” Then Mrinal suggested an option of meeting Jeevan Sir, XIMB who is a full time senior faculty @ CSREM, Paralakhemundi. Mrinal knew him when he was in the hostel in the summers & Jeevan sir was here since the inception of CSREM. So we went to meet him & the response was overwhelming…he was happy to meet us & really impressed by us for we had CSIR award in our hands. He felt that our Project or say product “MPPG” (Off-Grid Micro Power Generator) was something which is sellable. He encouraged us that we should go for it.
.
Analyzing it we discussed & we had a brain storming session within us: me, MRINAL & VIKASH sir. I was really interested to go for it, but Mrinal was like: it’s going to be tough; all the 48 judging parameters gave us the feel that it may b possible but may not be in the delineated time. We also had semesters @ the time when the submission were scheduled. I still remember the submission was on 16th Dec. & the sems commenced from 18th Dec. So it was a tough fight of time b/w the papers & B-PLAN. After a horrendous brain storming session of 2 days were came to the conclusion that we are “ON” for the B-PLAN & the EUREKA as well. I remember Jeevan sir resolved my anxiety & confusion in a very simple way he said, “From this point of your career, you cannot become 9.0 pointers all of a sudden nor you can collapse ending up being 5.0 pointers, so it’s the time to deliver, go for it.” This one line ended up all my confusion that percolated through my mind & heart. So full time we were ON for this B-PLAN contest. We knew we had to work very hard as it was a complete alien stuff for all of us; way ahead from the technical stuffs. It was something which is B-School culture, so to catch up to that standard we had to really crack nuts & we were preparing ourselves for it. This commitment meant giving up the sems for the contest; it was not like leaving the papers instead it was like giving the full time to this B-PLAN & not to the worries about the semester. If at all we have to read for semester we knew we needed a strategic time-out.
.
Thus started a legendary journey of success! That point of time I was in the 1st floor right wing in room no-212 with Ullas & Puru Sir. Vikash sir was in room-211, so it was a perfect resonance for me. So after the 3rd mid-sem classes were over & we had official holidays to study for the semester (5th semester). 3rd Year Electrical Engineering is the toughest in BPUT just the way it is @ IIT-Kanpur...; (I don’t know Satish our frined from IIT-Kanpur, IIM-B told us!). We were under the sheer guidance & leadership of Vikash Sir. Packed up my laptop geared up with Vikash sir, Mrinal & we (budding entrepreneurs) were on the way to CSREM to be with Jeevan Sir. He was our only hope we knew if at all we can do something we have to learn everything from him. He started mentoring us, first he made us understand all the parameters & then how are they interlinked. All the parameters would appear same for a new-bie, but that’s not always. IT was very important for us to understand each & every parameter to the fullest if we had to be selected. We had our short-term goal; to clear the screening & get into the top 20 teams to be shortlisted by the judges. Mentoring started & he asked us to start writing bcoz that’s the only way we can end-up with the Executive Summary (final dossier of 4 pages to be submitted). So we started writing & collecting data. Another sheer problem we had to face was with the intermittent supply of internet connectivity. As I had already described about our narcissistic principal Dr.C.V.Gopinath (the real bastard) came up with his atrocity & fucking set of rules & destroyed the student culture @ JITM. He laid-off the internet connection during the college hours i.e. from 9am-5pm, for he thought this would encourage students to attend the classes regularly. Now this is ridiculous we are no longer toddlers that you need to tell us when to attend class & how to study. Anyway! You are troubling us in the end for the shortage of attendance (even for the genuine reason). We were in dire need of this internet connection because for fresher’s like us internet & google is like GOD we could learn a lot from internet, collect data, interact with persons in the same genre, get to know more about B-PLAN how to initiate how to start writing. Jeevan sir was very clear in his approach; he mentored us, clarified our doubts & taught us the way how to write & how to initiate. He made corrections but ensured that it’s we who end-up writing the Executive Summary. Everyday we got up in the morning pack-up the laptop & we three get out to CSREM everyday to work on our B-PLAN. We sat in the library discuss among ourselves, started wiring & got it validated from Jeevan Sir. Meanwhile we came across ALOK sir, XIMB classmate of Jeevan Sir; now room-mates. Even working with Jeevan sir was not that easy, he’s such a busy person. So we interacted with ALOK sir whom VIkash sir knew very well. Man!! He’s a great guy to work with. We approached him & he too started mentoring us.
.
Now we had 2 great mentors JEEVAN & ALOK sir, XIMB who were our GURU’s for the B-PLAN that’s why I say that this journey changed my life. When you have such great teachers, I feel it’s the biggest asset you have earned in life. So when Jeevan Sir was busy we sat with Alok Sir & veice-versa. There were times when both couldn’t spare time with us so this was the most difficult situation for us because we had our doubts piling like heaps & we were helpless. We then understood the value of time, value of person, value of hard-work & the value of quality. See this is something we silently started learning from them, it was just a beginning but we have miles to go. We then did our home-work, we knew that they can give us a modicum of their time so we learnt that we need to be more specific in our approach & plan. We lacked the basic writing skill-set then Jeevan sir told us to stop playing with words & start writing the fact & we did gave it a decent try. We were mentored for about half-an hour & we jot down all the details so that we can formulate it later. In the night we all sat together in my room with me centered with laptop; Vikash sir & Mrinal sat on both the sides making a semicircle poking our heads into the arduous but interesting task. We 3 discussed the details, formulated it, checked whether we all are satisfied & thus we finished writing out the parts one by one.
.
Executive Summary Parameters:
a. Outline of the business concept.
b. Identification of Market Opportunity.
c. Market Plan: Strategy for addressing demands and competition.
d. Economics, profitability and potential returns including timeframe for achieving cash flow positive.
e. Risk Mitigation and Business Sustainability.
f. Intellectual property status.
g. Capital Requirements.
h. Exit Strategy.
.
We have finished the Outline of the business-concept thus phase-by-phase we were writing up the other parts. When we started writing we could feel our confidence got a bootstrap as we could see things getting done in time. We now got some gyaan on the parameters, then we invoked all the other details available on the internet with the data, made right selections & thus formulated the stuffs. We were getting things right, we were on the track but sometimes there were blunders too, after all its B-PLAN contest.
.
ALOK sir indeed helped us a lot. Later phase of this B-PLAN Jeevan Sir got too busy & it was very difficult for him to get some time for us. But AlOk sir anyways managed to give us sometime. What a way to deal, the way he explained us the parameters it was so crystal clear; there wasn’t even a flake of doubt for the things he explained us. Thus we collected & formulated the stuffs got it cross-checked & validated by ALOK sir. He pointed out our mistakes & thus we knew where to make corrections & how to corroborate, substantiate & underpin.
.
T.Patrick Walsh from University of Illinois came to our college JITM to undergo a pilot project for his LED lantern. He was teamed-up with Vikash Sir & his group to carry out the R&D project. Patrick & Vikash sir were the winner of the Mondialogo Engineering Award in collaboration with UNESCO organized by Daimler, got huge sum as seed funding. He too participated in the B-PLAN contest organized by the Oxford University & won the contest. He shared his business-plan dossier, which became a perfect reference for us…Thanks Patrick ! With so much in our hand we became unstoppable. We felt like things were turning on our favour for we were honestly dedicated to our B-PLAN. We finished parameter A), B), C) with ease. The next section proved to be a bottle-neck for us which included Cash-flow projections, break-even & pro-forma balance sheets. These were the financial analysis on a large-scale which was fiddly & challenging. For this domain…we had to move on with our economics teacher Anita Patra mam who is an expert in financial analysis. She’s been with JITM since 9 years before she moved on to CSREM & now she’s a full time faculty there. She welcomed us & appreciated our move to aim for IIT she too promised us to give her 100% & she did. She helped in making the cash flow projections, pro-forma balance sheets & finally the break-even chart in MS Excel (we dint knew that) she said this much would seal our position & we were confident to get into the top 20 list. After two & a half days of analysis with Anita Mam our financial section became rock solid. Now we moved on with ALOK & JEEVAN sir for the rest.
.
Everyday it became our routine, we got-up, packed my laptop & marched on to CSREM to work on the B-PLAN. Moreover CSREM had wireless N/W so we had full time internet connectivity during our work. Days passed working the way everyday…while our friends were going through tough books of Electrical Machines, Microprocessors, Control System & many more. We had nothing in our mind by that time it was only B-PLAN & B-PLAN running through our mind. Our peers silently commented us, it was like “Where do you march on everyday with a laptop…buddy its exam time!” The simple answer was “yaar! We are busy”. We dint had morsel of time to study because in the morning we discussed it with ALOK sir, Jeevan Sir & Anita MAM; Night time we made our typical semicircle in my room & continued the good work late night until it was bed time: may b around 1am-2am daily. Every day we were moving on nicely with our Executive Summary but that badly on the other hand with our semester preparation which was getting really crappy. Semester was approaching so did the submission deadline. After spending a month of intense & focused hard work we got our Executive Summary done but wasn’t explicit. We needed some crafting & editing.
.
We wasted a whole day of work day only to calculate the income tax i.e. 30% of corporate tax but at last came to the conclusion that for SSI we have relaxation from Govt. Of Orissa & all the calculations were again reverted back. It was really tiring so is the financial analysis. We also met the chief of SSI, Orissa & talked about our B-PLAN he too guided us with a very nice concept i.e. if the % of production for achieving the break-even is less that 50% (preferable is 40%) the business is profitable. We used this concept & was very helpful in the final presentation. He also asked us to send our Executive Summary, but we were becoming professionals & we realized the value of Intellectual Property & thus we decided not to share anything about the B-PLAN with anybody except our mentors & so we did. All these were great learning experiences.
.
Bad times also tried to stop us; like we got a message that Vikash Sir’s dad is ill & is admitted in hospital for some unidentified problem & he had to move urgently leaving everything aside. We too were very sad with this news & we wanted him to leave soon. I accompanied him in the morning upto Palasa station.
Slowly but firmly we started to feel the pressure, because the work was not designed for 2 people & the absence of Vikash Sir was felt badly. Mrinal came up with his idea of adding a new member to our group & he had the name of a girl this time, for he wanted to make our group complete..so he approached me the name Shweta. I agreed! Now we became again 3 & ON. But this time there was a difference than the previous group. She can never match up the void created by Vikash Sir.
.
By God’s grace Vikash Sir was back & everything was okay @ home & here too. With his return we were back with a bang; now we were a team of 4. The preparation was a real test of attitude & someone dint match up the level which we had set. We took this B-PLAN preparation on to our soul & we expected the same from our new member, but…Anyway! With some atrocities in the approach we managed everything.
.
But Jeevan Sir was very enthusiastic with the new member’s entry. I guess he always tried to impress her by his humor & very friendly nature. He was more interested…haha!
.
By the time Vikash sir had to move on to Mumbai for his award ceremony organized by the Mondialogo Community which came on such a nice time. We planned to get our Executive Summary checked by Patrick, which Vikash sir carried in a pen-drive to Mumbai. He & Patrick edited our Executive Summary. Now our 4 page dossier was ready for the final submission. We too reviewed the editing; it was short, precise, seemed more accurate than before. So finally we were ready with our final submission.
The only thing left was validation by our director D.N.Sir, IIM-C. So we went to him with our plan & we got a very good response. He reviewed the plan & was satisfied with the work. Thus a silent confidence rumbled through our hearts. I cant say how much this feel boosted our confidence, getting validated by someone who is itself a BRAND (IIM-C). We have learnt a lot from him & we owe our achievements to him too.
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Thus with all the hard-work, toil, risk, expert validations, brain-storming sessions & 1 wrong choice our B-PLAN executive summary was finally over.
You wont believe me if I say you that the database of IIT-KGP isn’t fool-proof , yeah! Its true they have been trying to reach us & were calling some one called Mrinal from Patna & Abhishek from Kolkatta & asking them to submit the technical paper abstract by the deadline. We had registered for the events with our contact numbers & e-mail but still they had such mis-interpretations. We came to know this after we called them personally before that we were expecting the call from IIT, but…at last it was all a hunky-dory. We then called the so called Mrinal & Abhishek from Patna & Kolkatta & warned them…huh! (karna padta hai yaar !!) After all it was done with great hard-work.
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Thus the submissions deadline was 16th Dec & guess what the semesters were scheduled from 18th Dec…huh! Hope U know the engineering way…the last 15 days are the Einstein Days when no body wastes a modicum of their time but we were busy in our own way…of course the semester preparations were on but were not that comfortable as before…we had scarified our semesters but by God’s grace everything was okay !
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I was given the charge of attending all the computer works & my laptop (IBM-Thinkpad) is truly a legend. I ll tell you how? Later…
To be continued……..
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