Just a thought…
(the following was written during my second week at IIMA, for entry into the prestigious Media club.
Now when I read it again, after spending 3 months here, and just one month before placements,
I am pleasantly surprised by the over optimistic tone of it all. Probably the reason it was rejected.
Its surprising how the mental state has shifted within this time span; instead of being more aware,
I find myself all the more narrow minded, targeting "consults" and what not, and forgetting, what I
actually used to think and believe before coming here. Read on.)
I always thought I needed an eight hour sleep. I thought I could not and would not do without it.
I always knew there were super achievers out there, people with a sense of purpose, the work
hard- party harder lot – I thought I never bothered to be one of them.
I thought MBA was just a rat race. I thought IIM A was just another branded college.
One WAC, Two quizzes, Three weeks, dozen interactions and innumerable deadlines forward I
feel different…well I also feel tired but, but most importantly I feel capable.
For the ones who have lived in hostels before, they will realize that there is something about
the hospitality of the dorms with that fridge and that oven; the luxury of these rooms with that
white board and intercom facility; something has come around, it says you are no more just a
bachelor degree holder now, you deserve better things, once here…you are someone important
now, someone capable.
The place disregards all. With the tucchas gymming and playing tennis at 12 am, lecture halls
being used for ppts at 3 am in night, fucchas flocking CT for group assignments at 4 am, there is
an utter disregard for the sense of time. Then there is utter disregard for dressing congruously.
In the place where one would expect a batch of 400 students crisply dressed in formals
attending lectures, one finds shorts and tracks and beige capris. But then the realization comes
that the disregard is only for the things which are trivial. If you have work to do, the ticking of
clock has got nothing to do with it; the guy attending class in those ragged shorts is perhaps- as
far as the definition of student goes- the most ideal student, the next big CEO. The place gives
you an option to have a completely new view of what is trivial and what is important.
There is no room for procrastination, the place is alive 24 hours, and it demands the same from
you. Doesn’t matter in what heights or depths of self-esteem you hold yourself, this place does
bring out the best in you; it makes you capable and it makes you feel it. It tells you every day
that you are -as the campus tee-shirt rightly puts it - not just another brick in the wall.
Yes it’s a rat race, but it’s not just a rat race. It’s as much about Frisbee @LKP and Ram bhai’s
chaai as it is about placements. And if you cannot find the balance now, perhaps you never will;
all IIM A does is, it gives you a chance every single day. A chance to choose, to prioritize, to
learn.
