Acumen 2007

It was a lazy evening when instead of being on the streets of ahmedabad on my bike, I was passing my not so precious time on dbabble, chatting away to glory. The now so familiar beep of a new msg on dbab informed me that the trials for BT Acumen, India’s largest national B-School quiz n debate competition are gonna be help at 10 pm in CR 4. To admit honestly, I had never heard of acumen before even though I later found out how big the annual event was. But, being ever ready for any extra currics, ( as long as its not a case study competiton :) ), and specially one that involved public speaking, my fav, I decided to give it a try. As it is, I didn’t have much to do that night except of course playing cricket n watching a movie !
So I landed at CR 4 and as expected, there were a bunch of studs of IIMA, waiting to be a part of the team that was to be selected to represent the institute this year for debate. Glancing around the room I realized that with such heavyweights around, I might just be wasting my time here. “But well, now that I am here, I might as well give it my best shot”, the words traveled instantly from my brain to the tongue as I saw Maclo stride into the room. Maclo was this stud McKinsey dude who had never ever debated before in life and came that night with the sole intention of giving me company since I didn’t have any partner to go with. It was a team of two that was to be selected and from the 15-16 odd candidates, it was decided that from the 8 teams, top 2 candidates will be selected irrespective of which team they belonged to. And so began the trials…..each team of 2 given a topic and after a min one guy spoke for the motion and the other against it. When our turn came, I saw Maclo instantly spring into action, chalking down points that would build our arguments. I never doubted his intellect n sharpness, neither his speaking style. But he had never debated before and hence wasn’t sure if this is his cup of tea. Anyways, just like me, he didn’t have much lined up that night I suppose (hello…..placecommer with no work…hahaha) and hence he turned up to give me a partner so that at least I could try out. But I always knew that he’s a great speaker irrespective of his past debate credentials and hence was confident of our chances. We worked well…he gave a lot of inputs on the arguments and I structured all of it and the way we need to present n speak. We spoke well, but so did the other 7 teams!
Results were announced pretty quickly and I really didn’t expect anything looking at the standard of the competition…the very best of IIMA were there. But then it happened. I was stunned for few seconds when they announced that I had topped with the max points…and not only this, Maclo was next to follow – which implied that me and Maclo were the debate team from IIMA at this year’s Acumen! Oh boy, my happiness knew no bounds….It was the first time at IIMA where I had truly achieved something very significant by beating top competition...and it was public speaking again that did it, something close to my heart since my school days. Maclo was ecstatic as well, though displaying much less emotions than me, still not very convinced that he spoke so well despite his virtually zilch past record in debating. One can say that it was a grand Debate Debut for him ! Little did we know that the coming few days would bring us even more excitement…

Next step was the West Zone regional rounds. Each zone had a regional round that would throw up one team which would be representing that zone in the national finals. The entire process was to take a couple of months. Both of us headed to Mumbai where the west zone regional was to take place over a period of two days at Wellingkar institute of management. We arrived quite early and all we saw all around were teams all decked up in suits, from all over the western part of India, some nervous, some confident, and some having fun. It was a grand event for sure. There was a buzz everywhere, no dearth of media and the sponsors’ presence was felt all over the walls and corridors. In a nut shell, it was an exciting n happening place to be in. We were given badges with our insti names on them. The IIM-A tag did raise a few eyes - easy enough to unnerve you if u start feeling the burden of expectation but also sure to boost your morale if you are thinking clearly in your head. I don’t know about Maclo but I kind of enjoyed the attention and was even more determined to prove our worth as was expected out of us. We couldn’t let our brand down so early in the competition.
With about 30 odd teams, by the end of the day, 4 teams were to be selected to fight out the semis and finals the next day. The topics were already given to us and we had done our homework. But we only got to know whether we are speaking for or against the motion on the spot itself. These qualifiers were help in 4-5 diff classrooms, judged by eminent personalities from the India Today group and the Aditya Birla group. We both spoke well, and barring a couple of points that we thought we missed, I was quite satisfied with our performance. The results were out by the afternoon and yes, we had made it to the semis :) We were both glad n relaxed. We at least wont have to face the ignominy of going back to college having been shown the door in the first round itself. Now was time for some serious business and for the first time, we seriously started to think about winning the zone. Till now, we never saw long term. We just thought we will give it our best n have a good time. But now apart from enjoying the event, we started wanting to create some history here for our insti. And the best part is, we believed in ourselves ! We spent the remaining day preparing for the semis topic. We were to face IRMA in the semis and we knew from now, nothing will be easy.

The next day, the auditorium was jam packed, with various colleges making an official visit with their teachers to witness the finale. But if you think that it was our debating that brought them all there, well, think again. The crowd puller of the day was none other than the witty n ever smiling host of Acumen, Harsha Bhogale! He has been with Acumen for 2-3 years now and was going to be our companion on stage for the whole day. Ours was the first semi-final. When Harsha announced our names and that of our insti, and when I started my trip to the stage with the beats of some dhinchak music blaring our of the speakers, I felt so proud…..proud of being there to represent my IIMA…proud of being on stage in front of TV cameras and a huge audience….and proud of not letting Maclo down. Once I was up there, I knew I had a job to do and was eager to blast off. Harsha made a witty good natured remark on my name – another one of the times in my life when I have been so thankful to my parents for giving me this name :) We spoke ‘for’ the topic, “An MBA is the most over hyped academic qualification in India today” – what an irony, isn’t it ! After all 4 people from both teams had spoken for 3 minutes each, each team could ask the other two questions, which was then followed by any no. of questions from the judges seated in the audience. So it was going to be a long fought battle for sure. We did well at the end of it and specially with the Q&As and I left the stage feeling satisfied. Results were announced after lunch and as Harsha spoke out our names as the finalists, I gave a hi-five to Maclo and we knew we are just a step away now!

Now comes the best part! We were to face Wellingkar, the host team, in the final. Not only did we have to be ready to witness huge support for the home team, there was another coincidence! Maclo’s girl friend (and now his fiancée), who was all along helping us and rooting for us, is from Wellingkar itself :) Oh man, poor girl..divided between loyalties for her boy friend and her college !
We prepared well for the finals, even though we just had a short span of couple of hours to do so. But I knew that more imp than anything was to keep our nerves. I knew by experience that at this stage, it’s a lot to do with the way you answer and argue, apart from just the content of your arguments. And hence we both paid special attention to this aspect. And as I stepped once again on the now familiar stage, the blood in my veins flew at breakneck speed and the only thing on my mind was to emerge victorious as that was the only way to quiet the boisterous support the home team was enjoying. We spoke ‘against’ the topic “Soft skills, and not technical proficiency, are what separates the great managers from the good ones”. It was a tough side to take on the issue n we knew we had an arduous task at hand….But as the debate went on, my confidence grew every minute. And by the time it came to Q&As, I think we were in a state of mind where nothing could faze us. The questions were tricky and twisted and demanded some quick thinking backed up by sound logic. I was so much drowned into the action that after discussing the answers with Maclo for few seconds, I only ended up answering most of them, though we had decided we will split it up. But he gave me a thumbs up to go ahead with every answer and his confidence in me pumped me up further.

After the exhausting grilling, we were off the stage, holding our breath for the final results. For the next hour, I was on the edge of my seat. Maclo was much more relaxed than me….may be it was her presence or just that he’s very calm by nature, I don’t know. But I couldn’t relax till the moment when it finally happened. As I walked down the aisle to the stage, the thunderous applause finding its way from my ears to my heart, I looked for Maclo to accompany me….and that moment I realized how much it meant to him as well….He was already ahead of me waiting to climb the stage and collect the winners’ prizes.

And as I stood there posing for the cameras with Maclo and acknowledging the warm appreciation by the jam packed auditorium, my mom and dad watched on the TV the news about how IIMA has emerged as the West Zone Champions….

From the lazy evening on campus that day to the happening centre stage of a grand event, it had been an unexpected but rewarding journey. And even though we knew that the Nationals is our next step, we thought nothing about it. That night was ours to savour. And when congrats messages by our batch mates started pouring in on dbabble, I knew that I had played my small part in making my college proud… something that will always remain close to my heart.

Not to forget the new ties of friendship that I forged with Maclo….I was sure these days would be the topic of our reminiscence when we catch up with each other over a drink 10 years down the line…