SRK’s DAY OUT AT IIPM

It was a day of crazy excitement at IIPM. At 2 pm the badshah of bollywood Shahrukh entered the IIPM campus along with Prof.Arindam Chaudhuri. As the roof of the convertible Bentley opened and Shahrukh came out, the campus went berserk! Placards and posters saying Shahrukh will you marry me, Shahrukh come with us to Switzerland etc gave him the kind of welcome that only he could have generated.

After a brief but very witty interaction with the press, Shahrukh went straight for the quiz where more than a thousand students and guests were waiting with anticipation “Hi Shahrukh…,” shouted a 20-something young man, all clad in black, from one corner of the dimly lit quizzing hall, as the country’s topmost entertainment icon walked in the quizzing arena, to host the inaugural Business and Marketing B-School Quizzing event at IIPM, New Delhi. The audience broke into a series of applause with over 1000 IIPM students and guests chanting King Khan’s name and shrieking at the top of their voice. Nothing could have been apt for an eventful start to one of the most challenging and exciting quizzing events, Dare’09, organized jointly by IIPM, the largest B-School on the planet along with 4Ps Business and Marketing, the most widely read Business and Marketing magazines in the country.

A lot of razzmatazz and glamour went in the making of the event a grand affaire with various exciting rounds with one of them based on Shahrukh Khan himself. The quiz saw the clash of the top 6 teams(out of the 150 plus which participated) IIFT Delhi, Judge Business School- Cambridge University, ITM- Mumbai, NITIE – Mumbai, UNC–Kenan Flagler and IIFT-Kolkata.

Speaking on the occasion Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri said, “Everything at IIPM takes place in a grand manner and this is an initiative to take B-School quizzing to a new high by making it globalized and more appealing to a greater audience. Shahrukh’s presence in the event will obviously add the kind of glamour and brand value that such a world-class event so dearly deserves, as no brand in this country is as big as him”. He added “I feel proud to say that apart from achieving unparalleled academic excellence, IIPM’s B-school festivals have also been the biggest show for almost about a decade now and this event is the final benchmark to that effect. Overall it’s just thrilling!”

An all exuberant Shahrukh Khan added, “ I would like to thank IIPM, 4Ps Business and Marketing and Arindam for giving me this opportunity of hosting the Dare ’09. I have always enjoyed quizzing – be it onscreen or with my kids, and I believe quizzing helps in expanding one’s knowledge ,so would like to thank IIPM for all good things they have been doing in various fields.” Shahrukh also added that he has known Prof. Chaudhuri since a long time and has been a great fan of his book “Count your Chickens before they hatch” as he just loved the title.

Dare’09 proved not only to be an international melting pot for the preeminent management students to celebrate their intellectual prowess but also as a platform for them to share cultural and intellectual insights across borders and B- Schools. All through the Quiz the audience remained captivated and enthralled by the wit and allure of their host, who himself is not donning the Quiz Master’s hat for the first time.

He kept the young MBA’s captivated with his impromptu humor for 4 hours. He sang, he danced with full energy, he picked up the lucky girls from the audience and happily joked with them on stage. In one row where quiz participants had to pick a question from his pockets, the participants had the time of their life trying to search pockets where questions were kept-in the specially prepared jacket he was wearing. Be it in his white tee or the casual jacket with his tattered denims all along he looked dapper.
At the end of the day though what people remembered most were the words he began the show with. He began with a speech on success and said success is boring to speak on and teaches very less. What teaches us is our failures and that’s what we should never be scared of!

Forget a B-school event, the best of glamour events are rarely as grand and impeccable. The setting, to the entertainment value, to the well thought of rounds (in one of the rounds participants had to dance to Shahrukh’s songs before picking up their questions). Dare ’09, the IIPM 4P’s B-school quiz was an affair that surely becomes the last word in its genre and a benchmark which will be almost impossible to achieve. Trust IIPM to have dared to think beyond…