I am not sure if I had decided to do an MBA or have fun first. Whatever it was, I knew it was not going to happen wherever I was. And the place I had to be to have the best of times is the institute where I am, where I would be to get my masters. I had heard of Mumbai being the city that never sleeps, but to find a college that never sleeps was an altogether different experience.
There was a time when I was an ‘early to bed and early to rise’ person for whom the world came to a standstill by 10pm. Little had I known that the day on this part of the globe only began when the clock was close to striking 12. 11:59pm of any day is the most crucial time of the day which could either break or make one’s fate; that time of the day when you either feature in the good books or are a defaulter for one of the many submissions lined up for the day. One is invariably driven by the deadlines that are more frequent than the number of times actors changed their costumes.
A day without any deadlines to meet seems so worthless that it is made sure by both the faculty and the endless number of committees that we have our plate not full but overflowing with tasks requiring immediate attention. And each of the tasks being rated higher than the other, prioritising them becomes a task in itself often leading to infinite loops.
I am not sure how many of us would be thinking marketers who would explore the untapped market in the future. But what I am sure of is that we have opened up a whole new market for the slew of under eye creams and lotions. One accessory that every student of my college after coming here carries with him is the dark circles around his eyes. Sleep becomes such a commodity of luxury that someone who gets to sleep for more than 6 hours is looked down upon and treated an outcast. One thing that each one of us often dreams of are the days of the yore when a major part of the day was spent sleeping.
The institute that I had come to with expectations unlimited sees to it that there is not a moment that could be even remotely termed dull. For a start, you find yourself to be a part of the class where in a whole range of ages coexist that one can be excused to say that there is a generation gap between the two extremes. I am not sure if one could find such a mix anywhere else with a doctor, an engineer, a commerce graduate, a lawyer, an accountant and a physiotherapist sitting in the same classroom. It is almost suicidal to see the students from commerce background gleaming with pride in most of the classes. The not so blessed half of the class can easily be spotted as the ones challenging all their sensory organs to their limit to grasp every word uttered in the class. The curriculum sees to it that you blink and you are ages behind the portion being covered in the class. At the same time, it is an enriching experience to see a representation from every corner of the country that it could serve as an ideal sample for a market research analyst. Individualism loses face when it comes to any of the activities to be performed in and outside class (except in the trimester exams!).
Discussing cases and coming up with ‘fundas’ becomes so ingrained into each one of us that one could be woken up from their deepest of sleep and asked to give their view point right there. And one could be rest assured to be given a whole new twist to the case. Class participation evaluation has given rise to a whole new genre of participators called the ‘Desperate Class Participators’. These set of people are found indulging themselves in throwing statements which are nothing but rearrangement of words uttered by the previous speaker. This ensures that the focus lights shine on the person and at the same time leaves the rest wondering what was so different in what was stated. Each one gets so adept in formulating solutions and making up figures (without even following the News, we do not manage to do so is a different issue altogether) that we could even put the greatest of strategists to shame. There comes a point of time when not preparing for the case does not give the slightest of jitters. On the contrary, one contributes to the discussion in the class ample number of times and I would not be surprised to see a day when scientists would try to find out how exactly an MBA manages it.
With the campus brimming with so many activities all around, my college sees to it that even the most introvert of the person starts taking charge. It is also amusing to see how each of the clubs tries to outdo the other in proving itself to be the best on the campus. Poaching of club members, back biting, patenting ideas, and the chauvinism towards a community makes it nothing less than a political arena in setting. Innumerable clubs and communities sparse the campus and with each one coming up with a plethora of activities, there is room for each of the 600 activists to make a mark.
It would actually become next to impossible to find someone not a part of a cell or a participant of the bundle of events at his disposal. It is also amazing to see how each of these events wakes up the dormant talent and capability in each of us and brings it to fore. In the whole battle of proving one’s worth and achieving a balance between academics and interests, one is given a wide scope to challenge one’s limits beyond imagination. I believe that in the otherwise nonchalant world, my institute is one place where the best of US takes the centre stage and makes the whole world sit up and notice us.