Of Profs and proofs

We have this finance professor called Ajay Pandey (I am proud to say that he was one of the panelists who interviewed me during the IIMA admission process). Oh man! His fundas in Finance are the strongest I have ever seen! The man truly knows his subject. In fact, I have never seen him at a loss even once when handling some fairly tricky questions from the students. He seems to be a storehouse of knowledge and I am not the only one who feels that way. Even guys from IIT, who have had exposure to some pretty great profs rate him very highly indeed. It makes me really proud to have made it to IIMA, you know. Having exposure to some of the best faculty in the field is a rare thing and it really is upto us to maximise what we get from the classes.

Talking about maximisation, I have been maximising my sleep off late. While my colleagues are slogging away and sleeping barely six hours a day, yours truly manages to snore away for at least 7.5 to 8 solid hours :-D. Initially I felt guilty about it. But later, I realised that sleep was not a bad thing after all. Some people consider it a waste of time. It is not that we do not "waste" time otherwise. The most important thing is that we manage to stay productive during class hours and absorb whatever is being taught. I mean, imagine if one were to sleep even for a few minutes in the Finance class ( and mark my words, if you keep having less than 7 hrs sleep a day, you are bound to 'sleep' at least for a while in any class), one would miss a few pearls of wisdom from the prof. The profs here are unbelievable, especially Ajay Pandey. But the thing with his classes is that you have to be constantly attentive. One small lapse is what it takes for some fin funda from being highly interesting to being pure Over Head Transmission!

Come to think of it, I have never learnt Fin the way it has been taught here. In CA, all we used to do was to accept certain statements and formulae at face value and never bother about the foundations. But here everything is about proof - not in the technical sense of having to prove how a formula came about but more about understanding the theoretical foundations of a formula. I realised that I had been conditioned to accept whatever explanation was thrown at me without really questioning the motive behind it. That I realise no longer applies. I must learn to question and analyse the underlying ideas. That is when I get true insights into the concepts and can use them in a variety of situations.

This approach also ensures that nobody is able to pull the wool over my eyes in future managerial situations as well. If there is one thing good about IIMA, it is the way it teaches one ot question one's assumptions and re-examine truisms in a new light. I realise that it is a whole new way of thinking. God help me change my mindset now!

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Sitan