Life @ IIMB

It looks it was just the other day that I entered the portals of IIMB but the arrival of the fresh produce of the country’s so-called ‘hope-for-the-future’ heralds the beginning of a roller-coaster ride for the first years (Facchas/Facchis as they are popularly known) and marks the countdown for the second years.

Looking back, the year I have spent at IIMB has truly been an ‘experience’. An experience I call it without prefixing an adjective because there are several that fit the bill – memorable, intriguing, exciting, frustrating, fulfilling, de-motivating, out-of-the-world, tiring, inspiring etc. Each of these were applicable in varying proportions at different points in time during the last one year.

Life is a great teacher, they say. Life @ IIMB is like a microcosm that tries to give you a snapshot of the entire spectrum that the complete version called ‘Life’ has in store for you. If you thought you excelled at something, this place throws up people who may not just be equally good but in fact much better at the same thing. If you thought you were a god-send, it doesn’t take too long to realize that ‘up-there’, it was an assembly line after all! Humility is just one of those things that you pick up as a bystander on this highway – There are many more things that we can glean from it – does this highway lead you to where you wanna go, which vehicle will you be most comfortable driving on this highway, how much fuel do you need to take you to your destination, who do you take along with you/drop in this journey and similar such things.

The orientation week, the realization that dawns post orientation week, the 8 AM classes, the soporific lectures, the new found definitions for late nights, the binders, the pulpwood insensitive HBR cases, the surprise quizzes, the announced-but-surprised-with-your-marks quizzes/exams, the farce called open-book exams, ‘my-a**-on-fire’ project deadlines, the section bonding, the inter-section rivalry, the gully cricket, the DC++, the once-upon-a-time BRACKET, the RG-giri, the CP/ACP/DCP, the mail tags, the people who teach you the proper usage of the mail tags, the resume preparation – your achievements that would put the best ever perfomer at your previous workplace to shame - the punch words, the powerful one liners, the placement notice board, the period when pizzas become your staple diet, the ‘hard-on’ one gets when doling out the next big idea to company folks who happen to hang around the audi, the PPT fines, the PPT groups where people still haven’t spotted some team members, the trackers, the offers, the section parties/trips, the L-square parties, the various fests, the talk shows, the panel discussions, the face-to-face interaction with luminaries, the ‘aha’ moments in the class, the summers – The last one year has truly been a wonder ride, with several memories for 'take-aways'.

As my Marketing Prof succinctly puts it, “IIMB is like a railway station and the faculty are akin to station masters – Trains come and go – But what you carry into and out of the train is totally up to you”.