BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Activity: Drama

Mahabharata

Submitted to: By Group No: 7

Dr. Kapil Chaturvedi Pritam Pandey (2014205)

Rachna Verma (2014214)

Sankalp Jangam (2014252)

Shaily Sharma (2014259)

Alexis Rousselin(2014346)

Maxime Ricard(2014349)

Pritam Pandey

Roll No:2014205

Section:D

Group:7

KarmanyeVadhikaraste, Ma phaleshoukadachana,

Ma Karma PhalaHeturBhurmateySangostvaAkarmani

I like to accept new challenges and put myself out of my comfort zone. So with this intention when we were asked

to choose our group activity, I persuaded my group to choose Drama to depict different concepts of business

communication. While choosing this activity I had Mahabharata in my mind from starting. During our group

discussion I again tried to explain my group, why we should choose Mahabharata as our group activity. After some

intense discussion we all decided to go with Mahabharata. To connect Mahabharata with business communication

was quite a challenging task but with all our efforts we succeeded to connect it with some of the major concepts of

Business Communication. Following are the contribution from my side in the activity:

1. I helped in finding the link between Mahabharata and Business Communication concepts

2. Direction of the whole Drama is done by me, thanks to my previous experience

3. I also played an important role in Script writing as well.

4. Initial report and WIP report was framed by me. I did it by referring to various articles and essays on

Mahabharata and Business Communication

5. We wanted to give this whole activity an Indian essence, so I made sure that right from the pictures used in

the presentation to the music used in final activity is carefully selected to capture the essence of

Mahabharata.

6. Sincewe also had foreign exchange students as our group members, so I made every possible effort to help

them to understand the concepts of Mahabharata.

7. I also played an important role to manage the team.

Apart performing all these duties I learned many important things about Business Communication such as:

1. Cross – Gender communication importance can‟t be ignored in business world.

2. One can use his/her non- verbal language for defence in critical times

3. To do effective communication, one must take in focus all the Business Communication concepts.

Overall it was really a memorable experience and will always remain close to my heart.

Thanks to our course facilitator Dr.KapilChaturvedifor providing such an opportunity.

Name: Rachna Verma

Roll No: 2014214

Individual Contribution

Abstract:

At the very beginning I was quite sure about selecting drama as my activity for Business Communication Project.

After discussion with my group members and reaching mutual consensus we narrowed down our choice to

MAHABHARATA. Then we all came together to make this group activity a successful one. In this drama activity,

I helped my group members in finding out the reasons of choosing Mahabharata with relation to business

communication concepts in the initial stages. I also contributed in drafting the initial report and presentation, along

with the associated business communication concepts. Then I helped in deciding the scenes that we will be

enacting on the final presentation day where we could relate the concepts learned in class. I have helped in making

the video for work-in-progress report. I also decided the concepts that we will be portraying in drama. For the final

presentation I helped in drafting the dialogues, the narration script and relevant props.

Learning outcomes:

From the various scenes, I learned we should be ethical in our business dealings and shrewd enough so that we can

make the right decisions. I also learned to do the right thing at the right time and right place to get the desired

results. If we want to achieve a goal then we should look into only its information and its related facts rather than

any other information. Because this will help in understanding the situation better and arriving at the right plan and

deliver what is required. I learned that in the business world, the business organizations should communicate each

and every clause and points of their agreement to each other so that there is no ambiguity and wrong assumptions

to be made by any party and the outcome is a correct and just decision.

Sankalp Jangam

Section-D

Roll no:2014252

Mahabharata

Abstract

As we were quiet skeptical about the topic to be chosen for presentation, I contributed to help come with the

„Drama‟ as our major project in business communication. Moreover all the group‟s members agreed with the play

that we will be presenting. I and many of my group members helped in convincing that we will draw a good

learning‟s out of the play. After this as days passed by we thought of choosing the topic for our play, which will

enhance our interest in doing so. I went through series of topics in net and library to choose a appropriate play for

us. After few days when we planned to meet to discuss the topic, I put my share of thoughts and so did the other

group members, so it was decided that we will be presenting “Mahabharata” as our topic. This did not lack any

thought of point in my mind to see for another play. We started working on the abstract to be presented; I helped in

making the draft and power point presentation. I searched through numerous articles and blogs to draw business

communication relation from Mahabharata and searched for the possible scenes which we could play. Thereby we

shortlisted three scenes which has more inclinations for better learning in communication.

Work-in-progress

Since the play is in groups, involvement of each and every member is required for discussion. During the meetings

conducted, I introduced few scenes which may give us some insight and which is feasible to be completed within

15mins time, and so did other group members contributed. Hence few points of all were definitely considered,

hence fixing our play to three scenes. I wrote down possible characters from Mahabharata who will be playing the

role, and so we meet again for discussion as did not fix but had a good idea of what will be doing. Thereby I helped

in preparing power point presentation and searching videos for more effects. Moreover we made a small video on

the work in progress about the way we were preparing and giving interviews on the camera and thereby making

video of this. This definitely showed the amount of work we were doing in making the play when presented in the

class.

Final presentation

I started jotting down the dialogs by searching on net and referring books, thereby we started collaging the dialogs

collected suitable within the allocated time frame. This made our dialogs prepared well in advance. I started

practicing with my dialogs and meeting for play to practice. More than dialogs were the operational part for

presenting. Thus helped in preparing the power point presentation and searching for the possible video to be shown

in the background during the drama.

Name: Shaily Sharma

Roll No: 2014259

This Business Communication project has helped me gather useful information as to how is Mahabharata an ideal

case study to learn different things about Business Communication.

While working on this project, I was exposed to things like relating Mahabharata to the present scenario of

Business and communication in different organizations. The different scenes that were chosen made me realize the

importance of implementing ancient things in the present and how are they giving us insights on various aspects of

Business Communication.

The long hours of practice taught me how important it is for the complete team working together, correcting the

weaknesses and encouraging the strong points.

Going through different scenes of Mahabharata and selecting some of them was a difficult task, and almost all the

scenes had learning, but ended up choosing the three most powerful and impactful scenes that gave the perfect

picture of how Business Communication can be done effectively.

Arranging female costumes and preparing some props used in the play also had a role to play in my learning during

this project.

Maxime Ricard (2014349)

First of all, we have decided to play a drama, called Mahabharata. We find that Mahabharata offers a wealth of

Communication and Management. We can use that in the real life and particularly in business world.

We have decided to play three interesting scenes: The Dice Game, The Bird‟s Eye and Marriage to Draupadi.

These scenes are perfect to show many concept s of communication: Gross-Gender communication, Importance of

verbal and non-verbal communication and about effective communication.

My Individual contribution:

Before starting to work on this project, I knew nothing about Mahabharata, this is not in my culture. So to get to

knowabout this subject, I did a plenty of search by Internet. I have found much information, I have learned a lot

about Mahabharata. There are many things to know about this drama. Thanks of this knowledge; I helped a lot the

team.

Then as I said before, In France we know nothing about Mahabharata. What I know about Mahabharata, I learned

it myself. Indian guys know these stories of Mahabharata since their childhood. Actually, their knowledge is not

perfectly correct. So, I brought a French touch on this project, a French thinking. I believe that it was a good

contribution for the group because world becomes increasingly global.Thanks to technology and faster

transportation, the world is growing smaller every day. Future managers have to be able to take part of the global

world. Because our future colleagues will come from different location and different backgrounds.

I also have some competencies in IT, especially in photo montage. During our presentation we will use a lot IT,

indeed thanks of the overhead projector we will make our presentation more understandable. To maintain people's

attention for a long period of time, we connect better through visual accompaniment.

What I have learned?

I have learned how to do business in India. The way that Indian guys think and work together is very different than

French guys. Thanks of this exercise, I have got how to communicate and be effective.

For example I have found that it is very important to demonstrate harmony in a group, avoid direct confrontation.

Politeness is preferred to directness. Socialising and informal chit chats in the group helps to build rapport.

Communication is the key to success. Then, lateness is not necessary rude, postponement of meeting can be

expected. I also have seen that distractions during a meeting does not mean lack of interest, it is just one way to do.

Also, moving head side to side during conversation do not mean disagreement.

Thanks of this project, my business communication is improved, and good communication is key to good business.

This is important to maximise all opportunities for successful interaction with customers, associates and staff.

Name: Alexis Rousselin

Roll No: 2014346

Individual contribution and execution details of the project

At the beginning of the year, during the presentation of this major project, I wanted at once to choose a drama. In

fact, I think that a drama is the best way to foster important skills of business communication. Thus, from then,

interview of a prominence, case writing and sports team communications appeared as less suitable for this major

project. Hopefully, all my group was agree with my point: drama is a very good way to realize this project.

So, I have started to search for different dramas for the final presentation. First of all I had think about a French

play of Moliere. This drama is Dom Juan, an originally play written in prose was a good clue to understand better

all the skills of a drama like writing, speaking, listening and reading. But, there are many suitable plays and finally

I think that this is not so good to study on a French drama as I am in India. Then thanks to my team, I discovered

Mahābhārata. This drama from Indian culture was totally unknown for me. But it was the good way to know a new

thing about Indian culture. During these three month I learned about the drama.

Very quickly, I learned that the Mahābhāratais the longest known epic poem and has been described as the longest

poem ever written. This poem is very useful for business communication. In fact, Mahābhārata also offers a wealth

of communication and management insights which are still applicable in the contemporary world. This drama

permits to show different concepts like cross-gender communication, importance of verbal and non-verbal

communication and effective communication. Thus we will play three scene: Game of Dice, Draupadi Marriage

and the Eye‟s Bird.

For example, the Eye‟s bird scene is a test of archery by Drona towards his students. The aim is the bird eye but

before shooting he asks to them what do they could see. Students can see many things, but not the eye. He repeated

this with few students and when it was the Arjuna‟s turn, this student see only bird‟s eye. This story is very

interesting for the project because we can link it with the real life. We need to understand what our interlocutor

wants to say, and thus this is the same in business. That‟s why this is necessary to understand this case for our class

of BC.

I‟ll not explain here all the scenes because this is not the aim of this assignment but, this work during almost three

month was perfect for us, French students, to understand, in another way, the business communication. Working in

a project like that is not very frequent in France. This permit to improve our view about communication. That is

why Mahābhārata had been a very good experience for me. Moreover, I think that, as a French, I have help my

Indians friends to analyse this drama. In fact, our French view is not exactly the same. With MaximeRicard, we

had help them to see this role play with another angle of view, a French view.

To finish, we have work a lot on the scripts. During training we hadall progressin actor's game with giving advices

each other‟s. This technical phase is very important for me because it is by the presentation that we will going to be

able to make understand at all the class the interest of Mahābhārata for the business communication.