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The first official day of the PGPX program '09 started with an inaugural function that included an address by the director of WIMWI (well known institute of management in western India) as we humbly refer to The Institute.

As much as we enjoyed the program that included individual introductions to the faculty, managers of the program and the batchmates, so did our families who 'got an opportunity to understand the framework and learn firsthand about the expectations from the students'. Thankfully the first day only included presentations from supporting functions of the institute, but again did not spare us from prep material for Management Communication modules for Day 1 the Monday.

Day 1 taught us that management communication cannot be perfected. This would be a smug statement unless I tell you that I acknowledge now that some of the practices we knew before can at best be described as 'Corporate Baggage'. So, while critiquing our classmates on their presentations and reviewing the playbacks of the same, much delearning was seen as imperative.

Day 1 was not to end sooner than midnight for we had to dissect the First Case of the year. This was an 'illustrative case', meaning that we would not be graded on it and it would be used to understand the mechanics involved in solving a case. Zealous as we were to take the best shot at it, we chose to ignore the point of diminishing returns and spent close to 4 hours preparing for it individually and in groups. The exploration was interrupted by the Inaugural Dinner with faculty and staff of PGPX.

Now, inaugural dinners are supposedly fertile grounds to look for some face time with Professors and if possible with their assistants. And given that this would be the second only interaction with the professors, some of us thought that we should capitalise on the opportunity. We we can talk with the other students over the next year anyway. At this point I should tell you that some Young Professors, the recently qualified Fellows (WIMWI PhDs) are not much older, if at all, from most PGPX students. Hence, spotting a young professor with a french beard already talking to a student gave us instant joy. Now, one could slowly join the circle and wait for a chance to get into the conversation. Of course, the sensitive approach involved in doing this is not much different from hunting where you could unnecessarily startle the prey. Anyway, the approach was executed and the conversation was initiated. After about four minutes into the conversation a bunch of visiting cards came out of the professor's shirt pocket and made it in to our hands. It is only then we realise that the professor we softened up to was the VP of the company catering for the dinner. We beat a hasty retreat from the deceptive prof!

After that dinner was mostly spent learning the intricate mechanics of sub-prime fiasco from RK, a batch mate.