The Institute: Another Home

Dark clouds gathered and decided to show their strength to the sun. As the sky turned dark and wind and rain joined the coalition of clouds, our cab raced through the streets of Calcutta. The sun was overpowered and I and my brother prayed to reach our destination before the rain hits the accelerator button. That was two years ago and I was on my way to join one of the premier institutes in India for my postgraduate studies. I was in awe with everything associated with the institute. At the same time I was a bit nervous and perhaps petrified with the thought of matching the wits of some of the best brains in the country for two years. My brother, on contrary, was happy, excited and perhaps proud of the achievement of his brother. After the drive of about an hour my brother pointed out “Look we have arrived.”. There was a pang within me as I smiled and watched nervously at the board of the institute. As we entered through the gate, the two large lakes on either side of it greeted us with open arms whereas the rain and breeze joined the party by embracing us. And suddenly all the nervousness was gone as the realization dawned on me: I was going to live the ‘new Indian middle class dream’ of studying at an IIM for next two years. I was about to become an IIMCian for life. I explained this in detail to emphasize on the importance of this moment in my life.

It has been almost a week since I graduated from my college and I feel that something has been taken out of my existence; I am writing this in a desperate attempt to relive those two years. I do not intend to make myself sound like an ‘emotional fool’ and thus have planned to make this a two-post series. The first one (this post) will trace my stay at IIM Calcutta while the second one will be akin to a ‘sales-pitch’ in which I will try to figure out what makes this institute so special to those who study/studied here.

As a new born baby I watched in bewilderment as I was introduced to the ways of IIMC. My initial reaction was to press the panic button: I called my father and said “Where have you sent me? These guys don’t sleep”. However as a normal human being, I soon adapted to the lifestyle (After all, Darwin had suggested the concept of survival of fittest). If I thought that I had seen ‘rigour’ at its peak then I was mistaken. IIMC has its own way of redefining ‘rigour’. People normally associate IIMs with fat pay packages (Though I am sure it has received a minor setback in the recent economic scenario) and plum jobs at some of the most sought after companies (There is nothing wrong in it. This is the brand image of IIMs). However they fail to understand what goes behind the scene to come with such sterling performances year after year. It is not only the way we are taught but also the way we are groomed to take on future challenges and there comes rigour: So don’t be taken aback when you are expected to be on your toes after 62 sleepless hours for a very demanding task leaving aside your apprehension, ego and fatigue. On reflection, some were not happy with the way things went by and most of us laugh at those moments but the truth is: the experience made us realize the importance of holding on for a ‘second’ longer and giving our best shot even at the time of adversity. Soon, arrived the much hyped ‘Summer Placements’: Just like the ‘Glamour-world’, this isn’t too attractive from inside. The efforts into it start much before: both from the organizers as well as from the students. And when it hits you, you will realize that you have never experienced anything like it before: You will fight every moment, share joy and grief, cherish moments and will make sure that if you are allowed to carry only one experience through your life, then this is the one.

If you think that the last paragraph presents a gloomy picture of IIMC then you need not worry any further because the last paragraph covers only one aspect of the institute. To tell you the truth, IIMC is perhaps the most fun-loving campus you can imagine at post graduate level and most of the credit goes to the kind of people who come to this campus to make it their home for two years. As one of my friends has put it in his blog “I met people who are damn smart and those who are damn intelligent and those who are damn creative and those who are damn awesome!! Each individual had something or other special (No claims to superhumans though)”. Though there are a very small number of plain ordinary people like me, there is no dearth of people with varied creative ranges; I have found some of the wittiest characters here while some are so entertaining you just need to fix your eyes on them to have a hearty laugh. The college allows you to explore your potential beyond academics (read extra-curricular) in a big way but there will always be some guys like me who would prefer some ‘free time’ over the ‘extra-curricular’. To be honest I started watching ‘theatre’ here only and had opportunities to meet many famous names (When you are studying at IIMC, you need to get at least these privileges).

Over time, I started loving almost everything associated with the institute; the 7 lakes (When it rains heavily, they flood the roads and it is fun crossing them), the Jetty, the Birds, my room (I did not change it in two years), my wing and wingies, my batch, the hostels and all other activities which defined IIMC. I feared ‘Finance’ (Could not understand anything) and hence when it came to choose the electives I preferred ‘Marketing’ and ‘Public Policies’. Second year was a lot more fun. We had a lot of projects and though the fourth term was extraordinarily busy, the fifth term was like a whiff of fresh air. Well!! For one there were lesser subjects and consequently lighter schedule but the other important thing was that it was the term for Student Exchange. So people flew from all corners of world (mainly Europe) to attend classes at our institute. It would have not been half as exciting had not some beautiful girls arrived in the exchange. However, apart from the general increase in the beauty quotient of campus, it was a great learning experience: interacting with people of diverse cultural background helps in developing wider perspective. The last term was when we received our own batchmates who were abroad on Student Exchange and thus I had a chance to eat a lot of chocolates. Some brought small (nonetheless special) gifts for us and then again we tried to use the little time we had together efficiently by engaging in fun activities and excursions. It was also the term when the ghosts of economic downturn haunted most of the education institutions; our batch fought these ‘ghosts’ valiantly and emerged successful. On the day we parted, no tears were shed but it was known that we all have left a mark on each other’s soul.

I have always maintained that this institute has given us much more than a mere ‘Diploma’ (Yes, IIMs award diploma): it has given us a soul; it has given us a wider perspective to look at things; it has given us the courage the look adversity in its eyes and it has given us the confidence of doing anything which we want to do. Living with some of the best brains in the country gives you that: they teach you to remain composed when you are down; they teach you to remain humble when you are victorious and above all they teach you to help others when you can. There are very few places in India where you can learn these and IIMC is amongst the best of those.

After going through this post I think I have not been able to do justice to my feelings. In fact I am not even half as successful as I wanted myself to be. However, that reflects more on my limitations as a writer than anything else.

P.S: This post would not have been possible without:
The B-Min (Core and Extended): My wing(ies) who remained with me throughout my stay at IIMC and made that stay a memorable one (Pasi, Arun, Teja, DD, Anantha, KK, Barny, Nitin, Taneja, Gulati, Kanojiya, Rishi Da, Anil, Manoj)

Awesome friends (I will not name them; missing any name would mean a certain death)

The Rahuls: All the awesome Rahuls of our batch (Agrawal, Ajmani, Bansal, Bhawal, Brahma Reddy, Meena and Sipani)

The ‘Pi-Batch’ of IIM Calcutta: A truly wonderful batch

The 43/13 and 45/15 of IIMC: some awesome seniors and juniors

Finally using the words of Taneja (lifted from his blog without his permission)

I was awed

I hated it

I sweated out

I loved it

I admired it

I reinvented myself

I survived it

I IIM Calcutta