Bizcomp- " Masala Full"

College: Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, India
Company : not applicable, kumbakonam, India
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Overall Story Rating: 4.7/5 from 275

http://www.whynewton.com /story/ 199/

Story

I was perspiring feverishly. The sweats dotted my forehead, slowly and gradually trickling through my ear lobes. The clock read 7 PM. Adrenaline was gushing through my nerves as if resonating with the ticking of clock.”5 minutes to go “– I said to myself.”You can still pull this off” trying to calm myself so to face my adversary with fortitude. Suddenly my cell buzzed. I grabbed it within a nanosecond. Fumbling and faltering I said “Hello” so to know the latest topsy-turvy of events. I barely had 300 seconds left to make this “Do or die” decision. On one hand there was a “Air India” plane waiting to carry me to Delhi. A distant speck of hope, a remnant chance to follow my dream… On the other hand was a more practical choice to accept destiny and submit to my fate. This was precisely the scene at the Allahabad airport terminal on the fateful day of March 20,2009. Let’s go in a flash back to visualize things in actual perspective.

Barely a month had passed after entering 4th semester. My interest was slowly drudging me from the tech field to the management arena. Slowly Top coder timings were replaced by surfing through pagalguy forums.ACM UVA contest timings were gobbled for ruminating articles from Wikinvest, Economic times and Business Today. In short my transition from a hardcore techie to biz stud was taking place gradually and smoothly. In these sublime days ,when I was bubbling with energy after reading insights of Warren Buffett and business acumen of Sergey Brin and Larry Page, after a moron lecture my sights got locked on poster that read about a business plan competition, BIZCOMP. The first thought that occurred to me was “what a cheeky name?”. But the thought soon vanished after I saw the jaw dropping prize money that virtually left me aghast.”Rs 1 lakh for first prize oohlala!!!” I muttered to myself. I had a business plan and decided to give it a shot. I had a word with my friends Shikhar and Aakash who readily agreed for the proposal. More than the prize money the exposure and the opportunity to meet the individuals who had carved a niche for their organisations in industry and in field of entrepreneurship was really enticing.
However we had just 2 days remaining to chalk out the executive summary of the business plan. But Shikhar and Aakash had to leave to their hometowns the same day.
The next two days passed in a flutter. They were really hectic with me swapping and switching economic books and my dearest laapi darling .The hectic and tiresome job was done before deadline. I owe this to my "special friend" who did the finance part of the project. The frantic calls to my dad and chacha about various practical aspects of the plan literally drove them crazy. They actually wondered whether I have turned to a maniac or am suffering from some schizoid disorder.
After a prolong wait of 15 days the good news finally arrived. We made it to the top 30 teams of India. This was well an achievement to reckon with for we were competing against teams from IIM’s IIT’s IIIT’s NITS etc. Now laid before us was the real test. We were supposed to prepare the working business plan within a week. We toiled really hard, burned midnight oils and ruminated all the information available on the internet regarding the subject. There was just a distant hope of getting selected, for out of 30 teams just 8 teams were supposed to be chosen for the finals. Being neophytes in the biz domain our hopes dwindled. Afterall cracking to the top 8 slot was an arduous call.
Soon after submission we got consumed into academics. Following which were our Holi vacations. It was on Holi evening, I was chit chatting with my family members and friends[u all know Holi is a grand affair :) ] when dad asked me to book di’s flight. Having booked the air ticket I logged in my mail account. And lo !!! Our team made it to the finals of the BIZCOMP. Well this was the sweetest shock of my life. I was stumped, in utter dismay, speechless, dumbfounded, ecstatic, excited and nervous all at the same time. Well that was moment of glory, the sense of achievement exemplified, the pursuit of happiness redefined which resides in the journey,in the sense of having created something ,in those hours of relentless work. I literally cried with surprise telling my family, friends and relatives -”I made it through”. This was followed by a series of frantic calls to my friend, Shishir sir and Shikhar about the results.
However Lady luck had charted a different design of events. How can incidents in my life be so simple. Afterall till there is not a tadka of Bollywood masala my life seems “rookha-sookha” aka spiceless. So the catch 22 lied in the date on which event was scheduled in Mysore. Well the date said March 21st and we were supposed to have our mid semester exams from 17-22 March. The question mark kept on lurking and the dilemma persisted. But I don't know why I had the gut feeling and the hope .It was some part of "the entrepreneurial gene" within me (and I owe that to my family ).Somehow I managed to convince Shikhar and Aakash to hop along .Thereafter we pleaded our profs (literally begged ) them just to pass us .One can understand the bureaucracy involved in a government elite institute. So on the fateful day of March 20 we were at the Allahabad airport, amidst all the hysteria and bewilderment, rather than preparing for our semester exams. By some "divine intervention" our plane got delayed by 4 hours (huh !!! yeah 4 hrs ...from 10 mins the delay kept on surging exponentially till reaching its optimum value). The crux of the problem lied in the fact that the interconnecting flight from Delhi to Bengaluru was at 8:30.And here were we at Allahabad airport amidst frantic calls when the clock struck 7pm.The last call was of my mama and he got another flight reservation of tomorrow morning for the three of us to Bengaluru. And in hindsight that deviation of mine from "shrewd miser baniya " was the best I have ever taken. So finally we boarded the Air India flight to Delhi at 7:05 PM. The box sized plane in which we all were huddled, the ear trenching take off sound, the bumps and most importantly the "aunty type" air hostesses [literally no scope of NSP] just added to our woes.
At 9 we reached the Delhi station and the very first call we got was from Jet Airways informing us that the checkin time was over and the flight to bengaluru was about to leave in 5 mins .So on reaching the main terminal we saw our destiny aka Jet plane flying away from us .We contacted Air India official to at least provide refund to the hapless students but their attitude was damn rude and turned us insane. Instead of helping us they asked us to contact jet officials. So the three of us huddled before the Jet customer care center put up a great indian "nautanki" with all the ingredients and "tadkas". We cited that it wasn't our fault rather we were a bunch of penny less students who had no place to stay, no food to eat and no way of going back .We pleaded ,we begged ,we exaggerated .In short it was the best drama ever put by the species of "Homo Sapiens". Finally the beautiful lady behind the counter sympathized with us and refunded our money back .We thanked and gave a "high five". It was a Yo !!! moment amidst all such misfortunes. After satiating our hunger we were at the Delhi Airport Hotel .We had a night out having fun on the streets and later cramming our elevator pitch. So the next day we boarded our flight and reached Bengaluru at 11 am in the morning .My dad got a taxi booked for us from bengaluru to Mysore . Our presentation time was due at 1 PM . The taxi driver drove like hell, thankfully .His driving skills were exemplary even better than "fast and furious". So we reached Mysore at 1 PM .I felt "nirvana" then because even reaching the venue with a flurry of twists and turns in itself was an achievement .In fact I felt we should have been awarded "Godrey Philips bravery award" for having survived a string of heart attacks. Our presentation was rescheduled at 3 PM .During the lunch time we met guys from IIM -A ,C,L ,Symbiosis ,TISS and NIT-J. Most of the IIM grads were nicely dressed in their black suits and polished formal shoes .Whereas we resembled more of a bunch of "tension free" engineering grads. We were the rookies making our first advances in the biz domain. Time raced when finally our turn came .The presentation went off really well . Our business idea was using waste carpet and jute waste so to make good quality flooring and acoustic material .The setup plan was to establish the unit in the Mirzapur Bhadoi region .Since my dad is a carpet and dhurrie businessman and I belong to Mirzapur and hence had the nitty-gritty details about the various processes and the real ground knowledge of the region .So we managed to survive in the mortal combat with the elite judge panel. We somehow saved ourselves from the question bombardment. We came out smiling not because of the presentation going well but because the nightmare finally ended .The presentation ceremony was at 6 .We were pretty sure that the IIM grads and teams from Symbiosis and TISS would have fared much better, given that they were the supremos of the domain. We assembled at the venue around 6 hoping that we would have a nice dinner and be able to get a treat from the winning teams .The ceremony started off really well with some speeches .To be very true these very the first ones when I didn't slept , great orators and entrepreneurs. It was a moment to cherish to be amongst those rare individuals and to listen to their stories ,journeys and struggles. Cutting short the melodrama ,the top 3 teams were finally announced - IIM A ,followed by TISS and finally IIITA . "IIITA" we were shocked, astounded ,amazed ,dumbfounded ,happy ,bewildered etc etc etc. It was simply unbelievable .The first thing that came to my mind was that now we can pay our air fare expenses on our own :) .I ,Shikhar and Aakash hugged each other and formed a group like team India.All the other teams clapped and showed appreciation . Time started ticking "tik tak tik" with heart rate increasing "dhik dhak dhik !!". And then finally moments of anticipation ended when the words came -"the third prize goes to IIMA ,second to TISS and first to IIITA".It was "the moment".The deafening clatter ,the claps ,those tears of joy ,those bonds of friendship ,moments of anticipation - all amalgamated to carve this beautiful moment .We went on stage to take our first prize cheque of Rs 1 lakh !!!.It was the instant we all three shall cherish ever .It is a "slumdog millionaire" story (though we got 1/10th of a million :P),a story of hope ,of faith ,of friendship, of fun and of adventure.