Ciao Professore!

Yesterday, PGP-11 bid goodbye to one of its most beloved professors - Dr. Mathew, when the course "Social Transformation of India" was wrapped up with the screening of the Italian film, "Ciao Professore!" (translates to Goodbye Professor) The film - a light hearted comedy, highlights the social situation prevailing in Southern Italy in the early '90s. Sounds like serious stuff, but throw in a dozen 8-year olds who swear imaginatively and yet retain their innocence, and an honest North Italian Professor and voila! you've an entertaining fare on your hands. Everything said and done, this movie was a befitting finale to a string of foreign movies that were shown as part of the course curriculum.

Before the screening of the movie began, StudCon members felicitated Dr. Mathew for having enlightened us during the course by raising a lot of questions, most of them very uncomfortable and probing ones. After the students gave him a standing ovation, he took over the mike and spoke about how he was skeptical before coming here about the way the course would be received by the students. In a speech peppered with Mathewisms, he added that he was very happy to have had a chance to teach us and hoped to come back to teach at IIMK. We'd love to meet you again, Sir. Ciao!

The list of movies that were shown during the course:

Colors of Paradise (Iranian)
Two women (Iranian)
Grave of the fireflies (Japanese)
All About My Mother (Spanish)

In the name of the father (English)
Central Station (Brazilian)
Ciao Professore! (Italian)

IIMK turns 11!

IIMK celebrated its completion of eleven years of excellence by organising a host of events on 21st August . The evening began with a performance of “puli kali” (roughly translated into "tiger dance"), a local art form. The audience – comprising of the faculty and the staff, their families, and the students looked thrilled as the artists performed daring feats. After the event, Prof. Rameshan promised to conduct the same event at a much larger scale. He added that many more artists will be invited to perform various other local art forms.


The function moved on to the auditorium where Prof. R.P.Suresh, one of the senior most faculties, gave a small speech as he took a trip down the memory lane. He spoke about how much progress we’ve achieved in these 11 years and expressed hope at continuing at the same fervent pace. After that Dr Krishna Kumar, the director, addressed the audience, speaking about the importance of celebrating the foundation day, and maintaining our distinctness as we continue to grow in size. This speech, peppered with anecdotes, was followed by a function where the administrative officers were felicitated.

The evening ended on a high note with an excellent performance by the orchestra.

PGP11 works hard and parties harder!!

They were 69. And all of them had one single responsibility for the evening: Bring out the party animal in PGP 11. The PGP11 bash, thrown for the batch by all the committee members, started as soon as the first bus left for the venue at 6 in the evening. The thirty kilometers to Kadavu resort, our venue for the evening, were spent singing, dancing to and enjoying some of the best Tamil and Malayalam songs (that the bus driver had). Excitement was in the air as our bus rolled into the resort.

Set quaintly along a river, Kadavu is quite a beautiful place. The vast expanse of space and beautiful traditional architecture didn’t really have the calming effect that it normally would. The junies were raring to swing and even the fruit punch (which looked unbelievably like Absinthe!) and toothsome starters couldn’t stop them from getting onto the floor. [The place was too big to qualify as a dance floor, it was ‘a lot of floor’ where you could dance, walk, eat or run a half marathon...]













With D (Deepak Oram for the uninitiated) taking over as the DJ, the music went popular, the lights went off, the crowd went crazy, and the entire floor went dance. Our big little family resort was now neither family, nor resort. The heady mix of amazing music, Saturday night relief and green fruit punch resulted in some remarkable performances on the floor. Some of these have been caught on camera but some others are etched in time.













Dinner followed the dance extravaganza, and it was pan-Indian and yummy. The music and the green fruit punch kept flowing in the meanwhile.

The crowd started to dwindle at about 10:30 in the evening as the first set of buses drove off back to the campus. As the night progressed, a ‘deep thought and philosophy’ group began to emerge – true to traditions of occasions such as this. Deep contemplation and debate went on till midnight, when it was time for the last bus, and culminated with some Bappi-da numbers from the golden 80’s.

It certainly wasn’t the first party of the season, the Mess party took that honour, but it was certainly an extremely memorable one - Something that the batch of 2009 won’t forget in a hurry.

PGP 10 Merit Evening

The second year PGP students were presented with merit certificates at a quiet event in the auditorium on the evening of Aug 16. Quiet because no-one seemed to know about it and those who did couldn’t sadly find the time.

The PGP Chair, Prof. Nair kicked off the evening, explaining the idea and the method - 1 in 20 students get the merit awards, based on their academic performance at the end of year one; the top ones of course. After the congratulatory message, came the turn of the students to receive their awards. Amidst the applause, the achievers from PGP10 - Venkat, Sagar, Ananya, Prakhar, Sheetal, Tushar, Gopichander, Prasanna and Aruna collected their certificates from Prof. RP Suresh. Venkat, Sagar and Sheetal, took the opportunity to share their thoughts with the audience – all of them attributing a big share of their success to their group mates, the faculty and everyone else at K. Sagar had an interesting story to narrate, about how he got the offer to join IIMK on June 19, 2006, precisely 2 days before the course was to commence, about how he started from a clean slate and the journey from then to now.

Prof. Suresh gave the concluding address: explaining the low coefficient of correlation between the academic awards and success in career and life but underscoring their importance nonetheless. He recounted how the awards were started in the year 2000, and how they had grown from being a low key affair to the merit evening function of today. [Prof Suresh was the PGP Chair in 2000.] Just like everyone else present, he lamented about the low turnout, especially from PGP11, whose numbers totaled less than the number of faculty and staff present. And also like everyone else, he hoped that the coming years will see more enthusiasm from the junior students. Saurabh, from the student’s council proposed the formal vote of thanks and High tea followed.

The photograph is courtesy Saurabh, who also doubled up as the official photographer.

Here’s wishing great success to all the winners!!

Independence day celebrations

The 60th Independence Day celebrations began for IIM K at 9.30 AM sharp at the Harvard Steps. Around 200 people consisting of students from PGP10 and PGP11, the Faculty with their families and the employees of NTPC undergoing Management Training programme, gathered to participate in the celebrations.

The event began with Professor R. P. Suresh hoisting the Tricolour which was followed by a rendition of the National anthem, sung enthusiastically by everyone present. Professor R. P. Suresh went on to give a short speech about the sacrifices made by the founding Fathers of the country and how we ought to work for the betterment of our country together, with unwavering commitment.

Speeches by Professor R. Pillai, Mr. Kunhikrishnan and Professor Rameshan followed. Professor Pillai gave a short speech with a philosophical intonation. The floor was then thrown open to everyone. Student Council Member Saurabh Garg took the opportunity to say a few words. One person from NTPC also spoke briefly regarding the occasion. Refreshments were served after this and the event concluded at 10.15 AM.

To Sir, with Love...

Through the course of our lives we are taught by many teachers but very rarely do we come across one who completely changes our outlook, who becomes the proverbial 'Friend, Philosopher and Guide'. Professor Wilson Mackaden was one such teacher. Every single student and teacher we approached to get quotes for this article said almost the same thing about him - he was joy personified, a moment in his presence was enough to lift your spirits, no matter how low you were.

Professor Mackaden was born in Belgaum in Karnataka in 1933, he came to Kozhikode in 1963 to join Malabar Christian College as a lecturer. He retired from the college as the head of the English Department. Retirement was not his cup of tea though and soon he joined the MES College. We had the good luck of having him in our campus as a part of the Centre of Excellence.

Following are a few quotes collected from Professors and students close to him:

Professor Unnikrishnan:

"Always cheerful in his disposition, he made everyone who interacted with him feel good and happy. With his sad demise, the IIMK PGP has lost a trusted well wisher and an inspiring teacher."

Professor R. Pillai:

"Prof Mackaden was the embodiment of selfless service. He was a man of immense energy for whom age was never a limiting factor. His humble nature appealed to everyone. He will be sorely missed by all."

Professor K. K. Ramesh:

"Prof. Mackaden had an aura of positive energy around him. My first interaction with him was when I started teaching at IIM Kozhikode and this very meeting influenced my own perspective towards life. It filled me with enthusiasm and cheer. His characteristic style of greeting everyone, including his students, with a joyful 'Hi!' is still fresh in my memory. Prof. Mackaden was a person of great humility and he will be dearly missed by everyone who came in touch with him."

Aruna(PGP10):

"Prof Mackaden, the name somehow still fills me with energy. Although old his energy put us twenty somethings to shame. His love for teaching and students was so evident in his classes. He always had a joke to tell and a smile to share. Professor Mackaden you are missed Sir."

Vishal Bondwal(PGP09):

"Professor Mackaden had an amazing perkiness and joie de vivre which were immensely contagious. He was more active than people half his age. His amazing enthusiasm and energy couldn't be rivalled, even by his students. His stories were interesting and even though he belonged to the old school in terms of his emphasis on grammar and pronunciation, his classes were never boring. All of us looked forward to his classes, especially because in the thick of the IIM grind his classes were a welcome break from the usual and they kind of recharged you. I fondly remember a presentation I gave on culture, which stretched on for more than an hour, but Prof. Mack didn't say a thing. He was very witty, even outside the class. His conversation was usually sprinkled with insightful experiences ranging from his boating hobby (memories of the Calicut Boat Club) to Jiddu Krishnamurti's philosophy and the time he had spent studying under him personally. "

His colleagues and students really miss him and I'm sure PGP11 reading this article, would feel they missed a great teacher...

Remembering Mack