My Experiments with Half-truths: Chapter 3: The Bangalore Years (1982-84) at IIM

B
(For readers who are new to the Indian education system, IIM Bangalore is like I
ndia's Harvard or Stanford- a top Business school. I was there doing my MBA from
1982-84)
What happens to anyone who goes to an IIM is that his life changes forever. It i
s a unique environment, where you are forced to do many new things. The resident
ial setup with a cosmopolitan crowd-urban, rural, northern, eastern, western, so
uthern, young, old and so on …the diversity is amazing. The only other place I g
ot to see this kind of diversity was in the U.S. university I went to later on.
All the assumptions that you have about yourself have to be re-evaluated, in gen
eral, when you land up at such a place.
To balance the cosmopolitan students and faculty, we had a totally rural ambienc
e of Bilekahalli where IIMB was located. We were the first inhabitants of this n
ew campus, and faced the music in many ways. No street lights-actually, no stree
ts in the beginning, a makeshift mess of a dining room in a shed, no computers (
that was not the IIM’s fault, there weren’t any in India then), no sports facili
ties except open spaces, and so on. Looking back, we didn’t mind it one bit. Thi
s is worth thinking about, in the context of material greed that overcomes many
of us who graduate from there, from about the time placement season starts. Is m
aterial wealth correlated with happiness? I don’t know.
The atmosphere in the classes ranged from electric and ecstatic to bored and tun
ed out- depending on who taught and how they taught. The processes and the auton
omy of using different methods of teaching (trying to teach?) were truly world c
lass, and in some cases, superior to those I found in the U.S. later. For exampl
e, the system of doing course projects in every marketing course was the best th
ing to happen to us armchair engineers!
The first term, we did a project on estimating demand for mopeds (the dinosauria
l equivalents of today’s Scooty). Off we went to meet dealers of Luna (the marke
t leader then) and TVS mopeds in Bangalore. We were three in the group, and did
not have the faintest idea of how to do this project. But amazingly, at the end
of the term, we knew a lot more than at the beginning. Learning somehow happens
when the responsibility shifts to the learner. In the next term, we again had a
project, and this time we decided to estimate the demand for HDPE (plastic) carr
y bags in various applications. This also turned out to be a great learning expe
rience, going into dusty streets to find sellers, ask them how many they sold, w
here they were used and so on, and try and put together this weird set of estima
tes into one whole figure. We might have been wrong by miles like any bad astrol
oger, but still we learnt a lot!
There was also my first exposure to the subject we called OB-Organizational Beha
viour. I realized how much there was to learn about human beings, including myse
lf, after going through that course. It was of course, the professor (S.K. Roy)
who made it so awesome, and that spurred me on to take a few more courses in the
area- and each of them lived up to my expectations. This was not always the cas
e in other areas. I hated the finance courses, and could barely keep awake in so
me of them. There was a very good Indian Economy course (by Prof. Indira Rajaram
an), where, for the first time, I could appreciate macroeconomics and India’s ec
onomic data- which were not so great at that point, though!
Some of the marketing courses were good too, particularly advertising where a lo
t of ad agency guys guest-lectured with their snazzy presentations, and they ins
pired me to get into advertising as my campus job later on. Industrial marketing
(Prof. Thiru) was well taught, with a lot of case studies. The exams were a mix
of different types. One I remember particularly well was a take home exam in Or
g. Behaviour, where we were given a set of statements (10, maybe) and we had to
agree with them or disagree with them, with justification. I had to really rack
my brains and refer to a lot of books to answer that exam (the copy and paste fa
cility did not exist then). Far more than for many closed book ones. Later in li
fe at Clemson, I would encounter a microeconomics prof., who gave us Agree or Di
sagree type questions for an entire exam.
The most boring was a course on Energy Modeling, where 99 percent of the people
slept through all the classes. The system of electives and registration was new
to those of us who came from the university system, but it felt nice to have a c
hoice. Also, the CGPA system seemed fairer than the marks system to me. The rela
tive grading kept everyone on their toes, because even if you were good, others
who were better could pull your grade down.
An interesting thing happened somewhere in term 2 at IIM. I started writing unde
r a pseudonym ‘Observer’, about small events like sports (the few that we could
manage to play) on the notice board at the hostel, and found these pieces had a
wide readership (later, it became our official wall mag –we called it Mural). So
I expanded into areas like film reviews and jokes (PJs), along with Dash, my co
-editor of the IIM magazine, and we became a rage. Some movies we reviewed those
days included Mawaali, the Jeetendra-Sreedevi potboiler. In one of the movies w
e saw (at the now non-existent Drive-in theatre to which we usually rode on a bi
cycle), Shakti Kapoor played a character whose name was ‘Khoya Khoya Attache’! T
he movie was called Inquilab, and starred the Big B. Takeoffs on faculty were qu
ite routine in these articles, and a new dimension was added when we discovered
a guy in our batch-Vijayaraghavan, or Vijjy- who could draw cartoons. We had one
cartoon of students being “ground” in a grinder by Prof Apte in his Economics c
ourse, another of Prof Jagadish looking in a mirror asking “who is the fairest o
f them all?” and so on. Serious comments also happened on events at times, but t
he dominant theme was humour.
We also had the unique tradition of coining nicknames for everyone. These were u
sually (not always) anglicized versions of our original names- Gunds for me, Pad
dy for Padmanabhan, Jockey for Narayan Das ( now a Harvard prof.) and the graphi
c ‘Toote Chappal Gande Paon’ for V.K. Ravi (a market research honcho and golfer
today). We also had nicknames for faculty. Rajan (who was called ROI or Rajan of
India) was very creative, and coined many of these. Among the ones that stuck w
as Cadbury, for a prof. who resembled the butler in Richie Rich comics. One prof
. was also named Lothar, after the Mandrake comics character.
An institution at IIM campus was Uncle (with of course an aunty in tow)- who had
a chai and bonda shop on campus. That was the place where evenings were spent r
eminiscing on the day’s happenings, or what was wrong with the system, or the wo
rld, or your grades, etc. all the time through our two years. The sweet couple (
Uncle and Aunty) who spoke only Kannada (I think), and many of us who didn’t, co
mmunicated perfectly. When I later read Gerald Durrell’s book “My Family and Oth
er Animals”, I could relate to his Greek communication- Kannada was Greek to us,
literally, in those days.
Another institution was Naffy-the dog. He was named after the famous concept of
the Need for Affiliation (n-Aff). He was the campus pet, and could be found ever
ywhere. Rumours had it that he attended classes more regularly than some student
s. There was also, briefly , a monkey on campus-thanks to Fred, an exchange stud
ent from France, who carried one along. It was seen on the shoulders of some guy
s regularly, and even acted in a play staged on campus! I think it delivered som
e jungle mail to the Phantom, played by Snail wearing a VIP underwear on top of
a pair of jeans for the right effect.
The cultural activities were truly some of the highlights of our stay at IIMB. W
e staged a play called “Waiting for Lefty” and I got to act in a lead role for t
he first time. My co-lead was Rose, and the other major pair was Ali and Navneet
a. Harish Chaudhury (now an IITD prof.) directed the play. Many new talents were
discovered in the three or four other roles in the play. There were other acts
that brought the house down, like some Tamil song and dance acts, and a theme so
ng, “Mere Dil Ka Quarter Kar Lo Occupy” sung by Hemant and Kishore Kelekar, inco
rporating many of the famous personalities like JD Singh, our beloved marketing
prof, and many others.
The sports scene picked up after an innovation that our batch can be credited wi
th. One of us had a Frisbee lying with us, and it was not too common in India th
ose days. Someone came up with the bright idea of playing Frisbee Footer, a comb
o of Rugby and Frisbee. It had passing, and goals and so on, with a goalkeeper t
o prevent the goals. It spread like crazy, and we even had tournaments of Frisbe
e Footer.
There were also people who played Bridge all their waking hours, and I occasion
ally joined in. The lights used to go out fairly frequently (we were in rural Ba
ngalore), and that used to be the occasion for the singers to take over. Our blo
ck had Deepak (Todo) who was particularly good, and we could listen to world cla
ss music at our doorstep. Our seniors also had a rock band, which played fairly
good Elvis and other numbers, but they stayed in the city, and we interacted inf
requently.
Gopal Bhat and his favourite song “Ek Chatur Naar” from Padosan was the highligh
t of many culturals. He was very comfortable with the classical part sung by Man
na Dey (for Mehmood in the movie) in the song. He later also sang a ghazal equal
ly well, along with Deepika for a program on All India Radio that I compered.
The wall mag was christened Mural, and we (Dash and I) also produced two issues
of a print magazine we called IIMBIBE (Dash was Bibhuti Bhushan Dash, my partner
-in-crime, rather, my co-editor). This was again a wonderful experience, with so
me classic articles written by Snail, Rajan of India, and others. I contributed
one on Godliness and 100 percent attendance, arguing that the IIM policy on 100
percent attendance was designed to create godliness among us, because only god w
ould be able to meet such tough norms. The letters to the editor column was also
a highlight. We faked them, for the first issue itself, in the names of various
classmates and faculty. If “bestsellers” can get endorsements/plugs before they
are published, we thought we could write letters to the editors of an unpublish
ed mag.
The second issue of the magazine, we decided to be different. We made it a facul
ty special, and started chasing the professors who we thought could contribute.
It was again a learning experience. We discovered talent in unexpected places. P
rof. AK Rao, who taught a very “dry” subject (Operations Research) according to
students, came out with one of the funniest pieces.
Dr. Gopal Valecha who taught us organizational behaviour, described very engagin
gly his experiences at Ohio University. Everybody thoroughly enjoyed this issue
as well. We, the editors, had the joy of chasing the profs for their articles, i
nstead of their chasing us for assignments. Vijayaraghavan’s cartoon (which show
ed a donkey chewing up our magazine and exclaiming- ‘it’s very tasty’) adorned t
he IIMBIBE cover. This guy is himself a prof. at XLRI now.
There were of course, many dark moments at IIMB as well. A couple of student col
leagues could not make the academic cutoffs, and had to leave half way. Two more
died in road accidents, making one wonder if our pathetic road conditions were
responsible. One was a bizarre case, involving almost everyone in the campus in
a search. Puneet, pillion riding on a bike, disappeared after an accident close
to the campus. A search along the road proved futile. His body was fished out of
a nearby lake a few days later, leading to many theories about the events surro
unding his death. That left many of us in shock for a while. Salve was the other
 colleague who died after his bike crashed into a pole in the city.
The summer project at IIMB was a veritable feast for me, as I liked to travel. T
his three-month project had me touring the whole of Kerala, parts of West Bengal
including Siliguri and Darjeeling, and the eastern parts of Assam near Tinsukia
. I had to cover the plywood manufacturers, assessing demand for some cutting to
ols like saw blades made of tungsten carbide. The Bangalore based company which
I worked for was very professional, and treated us trainees well.
I encountered a lot of very nice and helpful people during my visit to the North
-east. They were a lot more laid back and friendly compared to the typical rushe
d corporate executives that I encountered elsewhere. The natural beauty of the p
arts of Assam that I saw was amazing, but I suppose there were underlying econom
ic issues that erupt in violent agitation from time to time. In fact, one of the
worst massacres at Nellie had taken place just before my visit.
The tuition fee at IIMB those days was Rs. 1500 for a year, payable in three ins
talments. Of course, parental salaries were also down to earth, matching the fee
. Even our own nominal salaries after we finished (not corrected for time value
and inflation) were a pittance compared to what fresh MBAs make today.
One of the nice things I think I did at IIMB was doing group photo shoots of all
classmates. I had to borrow a camera from Siraj to do it, and used colour film
for the first time. To keep the group size manageable, I invited people block-wi
se, and floor-wise. Those pictures are today priceless! One funny thing about th
e pictures was that they cost Rs. 5 per print in 1984. Even today, they cost abo
ut the same. But today, there are fewer labs that deliver within the hour!
The year book, IIMPRESSIONS, was the last thing I worked on at IIMB, with Dash f
or company. We decided to go for a zodiac sign based format. All guys and girls
of a zodiac sign were clubbed together with an introduction to the section, and
people who knew them well were commissioned secretly to do the writing of the in
dividual pieces on each. Zany and irreverent, complete with nicknames and mugsho
ts (some of them have to be seen to be believed), it was the biggest blockbuster
, with students who did not get it begging for copies months later! It was print
ed at an obscure letter press (not even an offset press), but that did not dimin
ish its appeal.
We collected data for the year book through a questionnaire called Pakad Baees (
Catch 22 translated into Hindi). Another innovation that the year book contained
was the use of ads (rather, tag lines from ads) to attach to specific people in
our batch. Like the Charms slogan, ‘Charms is the spirit of freedom. Charms is
the Way you are’- applied to Chasha. Or a paint company’s line- ‘In a world of c
hanging values, some things stand apart’, for Himanshu Manglik, changed to ‘In a
world of corporate mediocrity, some things stand apart’. Or, Raymond’s “A guide
to the well-dressed male” applied to Ravikumar. Or, “Whenever you think of colo
ur, think of Siraj”, borrowed from Jenson and Nicholson. Another cigarette ad we
nt, “Smoothness was never so satisfying”, and it fit Lingaraju perfectly. He was
the smooth operator of our batch, in many ways.
A book that impressed me during my IIM days was Ogilvy on Advertising. I bought
a copy, and read it many times. I still feel it is one of the best books of all
times on marketing in general, and advertising and promotion in particular. The
man knew how to market himself and his ideas!
I appeared for placement interviews with 3 or 4 ad agencies, and was selected by
Living Media (India Today group publishers) for their agency, New Horizons, in
Delhi. I had a meeting with Aroon Purie, their editor-founder, during the interv
iew process, and I was impressed. India Today in the eighties was as reputed as
TIME in the U.S. I remember that a copy of India Today was enough to bribe your
way into some media houses and sundry other places. Even people who did not unde
rstand English used to keep a copy of the magazine on their table, just to appea
r “intelligent”.
I worked as an account executive/client liaison executive in the ad agency. We d
id regular ads for India Today, some for a city magazine called Bombay (now defu
nct), and the original designs for Computer World magazine that they were launch
ing. An NID graduate was doing the design and page layout, and the first editor
was a “techie” from Hyderabad. We also did ads for Appu Ghar, India’s first amus
ement park that came up at Pragati Maidan. It was Indira Gandhi who had given th
is name to the park, overruling the more westernized Disneyland type names that
the promoters had wanted. The park was a big hit, and we got to see the rides at
close quarters before they opened.
I changed residences once in Delhi, going from a “barsaati” in Defence colony to
an apartment in Vasant Vihar. What shocked me was the price of food and accommo
dation in Delhi. I spent half my princely salary on the room, and the rest (almo
st) on food. Of course, they were interesting days. I took some time adjusting t
o the severe cold in winters, and used a room heater for the first time in my li
fe. My two classmates, Venky, and Gobish (Gautam Biswas), were my room-mates, an
d we shared a lot of work-related stories. Venky worked for Maruti which had jus
t set up shop in India, and was trying to get vendors to supply some parts. In 1
984, Indian vendors were neither used to supplying quality, nor quantity. So it
was an uphill battle for him and others in a similar responsibility. This was th
e first time I realized how difficult it is to buy something, even for a company
.
One horrific experience at Delhi was the riots after Indira Gandhi was killed. J
ust because her killer was a Sikh, mobs in Delhi went around killing any Sikh th
ey could find. I was horrified that such a thing could happen in the so-called c
ivilized world. Many years later, the same horror story repeated after the Godhr
a train incident in Gujarat, where Hindu mobs went around torching innocent Musl
ims. We remain animals in many ways, and the veneer of civilization and sophisti
cation is quite thin, is my only conclusion. But good governance can minimize th
e damage is still my belief.
During my stint with New Horizons, I had a first hand experience of industrial p
hotography, which was really boring. People photography or landscape photography
I used to enjoy, but this was something else. I also had occasion to visit Thom
son Press, one of the most technologically advanced (it was a part of India Toda
y group) printing outfits in India. It had computerized machinery in days before
the PC came to corporates.
Within a year, I felt I was stagnating at my job (the bane of all MBAs, ad guys,
and now IT guys in India as well), and went back to Bangalore to look for a job
. I landed one in a company founded by three IIMA batchmates. The company was ca
lled Marketing and Business Associates (MBA again!) and was into marketing resea
rch. This is how my tryst with M.R. began, and lasts to this day. I found the jo
b intellectually stimulating compared with my earlier one, and it also helped th
at I got to tour Ooty on one of my first assignments. I managed to do a decent j
ob there, without speaking a word of Tamil, extracting info from potato farmers
and tea garden managers for my client’s product, a micronutrient for plants that
was sprayed on to the leaves.
My next major assignment was for WIPRO consumer , trying to figure out which ing
redient customers would prefer in their toilet soap-Tulsi, coconut oil, or somet
hing else. Another was for readymade chapatis (heat and eat) in Mumbai, and for
a fabric softener. Fabric softener was an idea ahead of its time, because not m
any had a washing machine in 1985. I used my first fabric softener in the U.S. a
year later!
Another interesting research project I worked on was for BHEL, who had a Flue Ga
s Desulphuriser (FGD), costing about a crore rupees, and wanted to assess demand
. So I went to a lot of industries which emit sulphur gases, and delicately extr
acted their pollution data. This was slightly difficult at times, and led to tri
ps to the hinterland in many cases. But networking usually helped, and the IIM b
uddies usually helped in many ways. Like at Vizag, I was able to stay with Nandu
Jr., a classmate, and got VIP connections in a couple of companies through his
dad! This guy is now a marketing prof. in the U.S. We also were neighbours in G
Block at IIM.
The marketing research industry was advertising’s poor cousin (probably still is
) in terms of spending by clients, but for a person working in it, probably wort
h its weight in gold. Where else can you interact with the consumer of different
products and services on a regular basis, gaining insight into how their minds
work? I was posted at Mumbai, and one of the memorable experiences I had was of
working with HDFC as a client. Indian companies those days did not have a custom
er-friendly culture, but HDFC seemed like an exception to me. Watching how custo
mers were treated by their staff was a revelation.

NOTE: The following are appendices to chapter 3, which reflect the student life
at IIM B in general, and some original writing done at the time I was at IIMB, s
ome of which had appeared on our wall magazine, the MURAL.

Appendix 1: Dash vs. Pai

This is a set of two items that appeared on the IIMB wall-mag called Mural, duri
ng our stay. The first was written by Dash about Pai, and the second was written
by Pai about Dash. Both were my batchmates and stayed on the top floor of G Blo
ck .

1. Portrait of an anonymous IIMBITE as a rational number

Name: ∏ (Mathematical Symbol for 22/7, here used for Pai)
Quantitative Data
He has not reserved the Prasanna Chandra book (which was in short supply at the
time) on six occasions- 10/8, 11/8, 29/8, 12/9, 15/9, 20/9. Additional info: He
was away (in Bombay of course) for three days. The term consists of 80 days.
Qualitative Details
Gets up at 6 am, unlocks cupboard, takes out tooth brush and tooth paste, locks
it back, unlatches his door, locks it, goes to the sink to wash his mouth till 6
.08 am, unlocks the door, latches it from inside, unlocks his cupboard, puts bac
k toothbrush, takes out his soap, locks the cupboard, unlatches door, locks it,
goes for…
How many locks have you counted till date? Any time-and-motion study enthusiast
may as well begin here.

Favourite Hobbies
Putting off the geyser, trying to speak with hand on mouth, coming to Bannerghat
ta occasionally (from Bombay), browsing through Traffic management data bank (13
59 pages), taking over from where the postman leaves off…

The following was a rebuttal, authored by Pai.

2. WANTED!!! (By God Knows Who!)
Name: “ _” (Dash)
Currently haunting IIM (B). Last seen on ‘G’ Block top floor (North Wing)
Called the “debonair” of G Block, he is the only known resident of IIMB who will
deny that it is his birthday (after all, he may be asked for a party or at leas
t a cup of tea!).
Properties: He will talk to you with a wide grin on his face while hopping from
one leg to another, while you wonder what the grin is for! The previous night he
will make it a point to tell everyone that he has not studied nor has a mood to
do so and then read the entire night (the light is supposed to be on to scare t
he ghosts).
Identification Marks: Take out a packet of cigarettes or open a bottle of you-kn
ow-what or go to the canteen and he will be there, ready to whack a cup or cigar
ette off you. In case he never offers you anything in return, you got the right
person! Hold on to him. He is wanted in Delhi and Rourkela. A reward of Rs. 5000
is offered for safe delivery.

Appendix 2: An Afternoon Class

This is an account of a (boring) class on Petroleum Economics that I had the mis
fortune of attending.

The Petroleum e-CON Man

Time: Thursday afternoon
Scenario: Classroom 4 fills up slowly. Whoever enters makes for a seat in the ro
w farthest from THE MAN. Then, unfailingly, he asks for the attendance sheet (af
ter all, 20% marks are THERE). At first sight (rather, sound) it appears as is
there is an intelligent discussion going on.
At second sight (sound) you are already through the three stages shown below-
1. AWARENESS- that it is a Con Job of the highest order
2. DISINTEREST – in what is going on
3. CONSIDERATION- for yourself, and on to the fourth stage, namely,
4. ACTION
The action you want to take now depends a lot on your set of attitudes and belie
fs, whether you had a happy childhood, and whether you had an authoritarian fath
er who beat you at the Autonomy versus Doubt stage of your infanthood.
But let’s see…what would happen if you should decide to concentrate on what’s go
ing on and answer the question posed by the prof.?
Let’s see. The most expected- (optimistic + 4 x optimal + pessimistic)/6 –outcom
e would be something of this nature….
Prof (KBN): What is royalty?
Robin: Monarchy is long dead. We are regressing into not-so-recent history for n
o sound reason. Why this anachronistic talk, buddy?
Prof: WHAT?
Anil Jain: I can tell you. Royalty is a blue-blooded personality.
Prof: Anybody else? (Looks peeved)
Snail: A tea which is accompanied by sumptuous eats. A tea in which the tea tast
es like TEA- and occupies a small fraction of the space on a full table. A tea w
hich answers the demands of my palate to a ‘T’. Most of all, a tea which does no
t resemble the tea I have everyday.
The prof. looks on helplessly, standing.
TM Rangaswamy (continues with his take): These persons you know, the kings and t
he princes you know, they will be called as Royalty.
The prof. looks on helplessly, sitting now. He looks on, while the meaningful pa
rticipation by students goes on. His lips form the words, “What’s Royalty?”
He gets an answer.
Gunds: What’s Royalty? How does it matter? If you add a shirt to it, though, it
will become a Royal T-shirt. Real Class, you know- the Deepak Parasher look.
Gobish: The word smacks of the arrogance of the class distinction that is ingrai
ned into our insides by the hidden forces that are forever brainwashing us.
Ghosal: I refuse to answer on grounds that it may reveal my true identity and mi
ght create barriers in my warm friendship with Gobish.
THE END.
Note: This is a part of my autobiography. The book (My Experiments with Half-tru
ths) is available from the website of pothi.com in print form.