After struggling for survival in Term 6; Term 7 was the exact opposite. A complete sleepy lull. Winter was expected to leave us and bring on some sunshine, but that didn’t happen . Far from it. Mohali remained cold, rainy and sleepy. I started understanding why people in cold countries celebrate when they see the sun; humans (generalising from me) have a thing for sunlight and warmth, it brings optimism and energy.

But here we were. It remained cold AF which was very demotivating if you wanted to run around and play stuff or generally be more physically/socially active . Despite people on campus having more time, parties actually slowed down; people slept a lot and watched unwholesome amounts TV. Some pursued trips to nearby places and enjoyed the snowy landscapes in the north of India.

Personally I  read a lot, wrote a little and got earnest about planning my wedding. I tried to bring in a morning schedule of waking up early, meditating and writing; finding only partial success in that endeavour . Oodles of time meant I did long overdue personal chores like fixing my broken backpack which had been pending since 3 terms. I also watched quite a few seasons of the “Peep Show” a british cringe comedy show about two struggling dudes.

Despite having more time and a (likely) desire to know more of their batch-mates; socialising actually goes down during the last few terms. Apart from the comfort of your already-established group, there are also some logistical reasons; you have different electives, people majoring in the same areas take the same courses, different courses have different timings so you end up seeing the same people everywhere. BUT people are more vella, so you can have nice extended conversations whenever you bump into someone. I made a list of people to network with and was able to cover some part of it just because of overlapping breakfast timings! Unexpectedly nice. I continued to use lunch/dinner to sit with different/less frequently met folks and chat them up; totally enjoying the same. On the academic front from I had four courses: Public Finance, Brand Management, Rural marketing and Data Analytics in Finance. This choice stems from me majoring in Marketing and Finance . Always wanted to learn the ins and outs of marketing/consumer behaviour. I was weary of doing dry finance courses but the subject caught my eye after I studied Portfolio management.

Public Finance was all about how you would think about things if you were the finance minister of the country. Through the lens of economics, it introduced us to the concepts of market failures, public goods,social welfare, public health systems and public insurance schemes . We learnt the pros and cons of each using primarily economics or mathematical arguments. Our Professor was Shiv Dixit, a fresh new faculty who was teaching for the first time in his life; but nonetheless brought interesting perspectives to the table . One of the fun components of the course was a class debate on public policy issues; something similar to what might be happening in government meetings . I enjoyed this course doubly because my knowledge of government systems and public policy is very minimal. It was fun to add a new branch to my tree of knowledge.

Brand Management was all about the science and art of creating brands. The key takeaway was that brand is like a heuristic to a consumer, you don’t have time to research the best toothpastes and compare their ingredients, so instead you use a cognitive shortcut and just buy Colgate . Why did you buy Colgate? Because through Colgate’s ads, packaging, observances of your friends using Colgate and more; you associate good things with Colgate . An interesting exercise was surveying people who knew me to discover my own brand and create my own brand road-map. It’s an exercise I’ll try to revisit every year or so.

Rural Marketing was about … take a guess. But beyond trying to sell stuff to those who may have not have heavy economic might, the course brought some interesting perspectives . Firstly, who/what do we call rural? And what is the definition of modernity? Is being modern the same as being industrialised? Then the USA is a lot less modern today than it was in the 50s . Can we call Japan, a country with high economic progress but equally grotesque patriarchy, modern? Tough questions without a good answer. What exactly is the goal we’re striving towards when we want to bridge the urban/rural divide . Second realisation, urban consumers are idiots. The data shows that urban consumers pay a huge brand premium; we aren’t nearly as sensitive to price as the rural folks and enable much higher profits for businesses . My resolution of this was that urban folks (time-poor, money-rich) prefer velocity in transactions, while rural folks (money-poor, time-rich) prefer value in transactions.  Economically, rural folks get a better deal but that doesn’t factor in the opportunity cost of time which is higher for urban folks . We also had a rural market visit as part of the course. Punjab is amongst the most prosperous states in India, there are almost no poor/rural places left . Instead you have problems of excess, with the pampered kids getting high which lead to the drug epidemic here.

Data Analytics in Finance was a mixed bag of a course. While I enjoyed getting my hands dirty on the R-terminal again, between learning finance theory, understanding statistics and learning R itself, the course got overwhelming . I was left confused. A tangential takeaway was that the world of finance embraced computers early and it has turned their shit upside down, eliminating some sorts of jobs (equities trader) and creating new ones (trading algorithm designer) . The embrace of computers is spreading to areas like marketing now. Hopefully, it’ll get to public policy and organisational behaviour soon too.

While I was chilling, some of my batchmates were sweating it out profusely in the ISB Super League (ISL). ISL is a full on sports extravaganza, encompassing every sport playable on campus with added fanfare of actual money at stake and player bidding. Students pool up to bid for teams, becoming team owners . This gives them points to bid for players. Players are both students and alumni, who graciously offer to come play at ISB’s cost! The events are accompanied with usual sporting fanfare of cheering, close-calls, rivalry, injuries, food stalls (yeah!), etc . I wasn’t too involved in the ISL, my team was the Punjab Hukums and I played my part as the backup runner during the on campus relay. Thankfully, my services weren’t needed.

While some were sweating it out, others were taking chilling to the next level. The pretence was over; “I got placed, I’m done” went from being under the surface to being a visible acknowledged truth . Now I understood why ISB wants to keep all its major events before placements. This was the term when anyone and everyone studied as little as they can . Except for a few folks chasing academic honours like the Dean’s list and the merit list, academics was not a priority,

The cohort started putting together it’s yearbook. This meant the pain of getting your yearbook photo clicked, of getting your testimonial written, of writing a testimonial for others . Some folks used elaborate props like guitars, footballs, books, etc. to create yearbook pictures that represented them/their time at ISB. Such care was not taken by me . I stood in front of the one my favourite spots on campus – the ISB Mural, a giant colourful work of art representing learning, struggles and growth – and pretended to be a modern enlightened saint.

Other things that happened: The Business Technology Club (my club) got rated by students as the best club on campus_._ Thus becoming the highest rated professional club. Sweet. Net Impact Forum and Policy Conclave happened. ISB got declared the 24th best B-school globally (the only Indian B-school in the top 25 and and the programme with the highest percentage of women). Super darn cool.