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In the business of fun

Future managers pitted their brains and talents at two inter-college management business meets

Photos: K. Ananthan

SOME DANCE, DARE AND A BRAND WAR Images from Confluence and Urjith

If you were pursuing a degree in management and wanted to have some fun trying out what you learnt, Coimbatore was the place to be in last week.

Two events — Confluence, organised by the GRD School of Commerce and International Business (GRDSCIB), and Urjith, an inter-MBA organised by the GRG School of Management Studies — jointly saw more than 2,500 students come in from colleges in and outside the State to take part in diverse events.

If the two-day Confluence saw students coming up with ideas to promote tourism in Coimbatore and swaying to long-forgotten tunes in Retro Music, Urjith had the regular events like `Brand wars', `Stress interview' and `Best manager'.

New heroes

Confluence was a coming together of students from all four Southern States, where students from Mysore happily chatted away with their counterparts in Coimbatore, where trends were set (think art-worked jeans and streaked hair), and where local heroes emerged.

Flitting from venue to venue for the various events, students drawn from 107 colleges made their presence felt in front ofpacked halls. The steady drizzle of celebrities from tinsel world attracted a lot of crowd.

Singers and dancers from GRDSCIB took to the stage to showcase what the host college was capable of.

In between, the really daring ones tried their hand at `Spill your guts', a spin-off on `Who Dares Wins'. A student successfully held a writhing python called Bipasha for a minute, and hold your breath ... even gave it an affectionate peck, before he walked off stage. Others broke a watermelon with one sweep of their hand, immersed their heads in water and so on.

Backstage events

There were fun events galore, but the more interesting ones were being held in the classrooms around the main auditorium. Take Tourism Management, Loyola College, Chennai, bagged the first prize in this event.

The teams were asked to make a presentation on the topic and then answer a panel of judges.

Barring some, all teams had made perfect use of the google search tool to come up with near-similar expressions on how Coimbatore is the most happening place to be in.

The only discernible difference was in the way they pronounced the names of places.

While some teams referred to Marudamalai correctly, others mispronounced it as `Maarutthamaalai'.

Others had made more of an effort to find the places of interest in Coimbatore that included the Forest College Museum and the not so well known Sengupathy waterfalls.

Sadly no one thought of including the fast-emerging field of medical tourism, which is expected to see an influx of foreigners to Coimbatore.

SBRR Mahajana, Mysore, won the overall championship.

At Urjith, which is into its fourth year now, the spotlight was on more serious pursuits. Students from 25 colleges in and around Coimbatore, Chennai and Thanjavur took part in the day-long show.

Outdated opinions

The attitude and aptitude of wannabe managers and their creativity levels were checked out in the process of judging the best manager. Some teams were burdened with outdated opinions. Like the team which went up stage to sell a substitute for a cigarette — "In our society only men smoke; women and children don't," loudly proclaimed the lead player, to sniggers from the audience. What was this team trying to say? Was the product it was pushing aimed at getting the entire family to smoke— even though it was an aromatic cigarette substitute that came loaded with calcium and the fragrance of roses? No, the team protested. One of the judges resolved the issue with a simple question — "Is your product competition for Horlicks?" he asked, poker-faced.

SUBHA J RAO

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