BT ACUMEN 2007 – "I AM BANGALORED"

Bangalore is awesome!! I have fallen in love with the city. I was last there in 1998 when a tap of beer cost 50 bucks and today it costs 60. 10 years and an increase of just 10 bucks. Wow! So much for inflation! And the weather is amazing. I could go on and on but I would run out of adjectives so I go on flashback mode.

When we were filling the BT Acumen form, I had not even thought that I would be writing in the blog for any other reason than the visit to IIM – B. But there was reason to cheer. Shelton and I were semi-finalists in the B-school debate where we faced ISB, Hyderabad.

The trip didn't quite begin on a pleasant note. First of all, our train was delayed by 2 hours and we had no idea so we just kept whiling away our time waiting. And when we enter our compartment, and it's full of water. Anyway, after overcoming the initial pitfalls, our only worry was whether we would be able to reach IIM –B on time for registration.

Ravi and Arjun could take the liberty of sleeping but Shelton and I were feverishly preparing for the morning's preliminary debate round. But ultimately our sleep deprived eyes finally gave way and it was curtains for us around 3 am.

Next I get up and we are nearing Bangalore, there is a slight chill in the air. Of course the awesome weather of Bangalore has its effect on the surrounding areas as well. We reach Bangalore station and then we embark on numerous haggling sessions with autowallahs, taxi drivers and others and in the end we get one guy who seems to be reasonable totake us to IIM – B. Thank God for keeping the IT companies closed on
weekends. We get there in time to catch some grub and then register.

Shelton and I get to our preliminary debate round and wish all the luck to our quiz champs, Ravi and Arjun. Once again God was o our side because we got the very same topic for which we had prepared the maximum which said "You can't create great brands without Advertising".

The prelims over, we trudged along to meet the quizzers and then headed of to catch some more grub. Meanwhile, we got to meet our host for the rest of the day, DK. History of DK… naah…some other time. Results were to be out at 2 pm so we coerced DK into waiting a little longer. Well the IIM – B mess food is not all that bad. But our North Indian mess is better.

After lunch we are off to see the results and guess what? Debate Semi-finalists LIBA vs ISB and IIM – B vs IIM – K. This was the most pleasant surprise of our lives and I can safely speak on behalf of Shelton as well. This calls for a celebration so immediately we head to LOR and quench our thirst with four pitchers of draught beer.

Now its time we eat something, so we drive around with DK and get some Chicken Shawarma Rolls and 3 huge grilled chickens which u won't believe me, were being cut with a pair of scissors!! I was seeing scissors used for this purpose for the first time.

Then I thought we were going to a mall because it certainly looked like that. But no, it was just the Bangalore equivalent of our friendly neighbourhood TASMAC. Yeah! Can you believe it that I mistook it for a mall? Well that's what happens when you are subjected to the TASMAC phenomenon for too long.

Arjun and Shelton were so eager to get into the shop that they forgot to close the windows and doors of the car though. Of course this we noticed only once we got back. We rushed to see if our laptops and food was intact and guess what…it was. Then Shelton proclaims, "This is Bangalore".

We then head to buy some other stuff and then we see a man, driving an Indigo Marina wearing a helmet. There was something weird about the guy. First he was talking to himself. Second, he suddenly started playing traffic policeman and was signaling us to reverse the car. And to top it all he was wearing a helmet inside the car!!!!

The rest of the story I think has been narrated time and again by me and Shelton. Brand ISB was stronger than Brand LIBA and they got through to the finals where they lost to IIM – B. However, all was not lost. Shelton and I got a cool 1 year subscription to Harvard Business Review and some cool vouchers from Allen Solly. I can't mention the amounts for the fear of getting mugged.

Truly a wonderful experience and I hope LIBA is the South Zone champion in Acumen 2008.

By Soubir Ignatius Ghose