IIM Shillong – A journey in its half way stage!!

I stepped into the campus of IIM – Shillong on July 2 2009. I already knew a couple of my to-be-batch mates personally, so my Mom was a bit relieved to let her Vayasu paiyan(Age Boy ) into the little known north eastern part of our country, a part which most Indians relate to marking in India map to score a mark or two in their geography exams J .

The day I arrived in IIMS, I saw heavy rains I had never witnessed before. Everyone was carrying an umbrella with jerkins on. Many were discussing about their CAT and their umpteen calls from premier institutes. I was flabbergasted by the kind of people I was to study with and was seriously brooding whether I was in the wrong place!

Aditya, my undergraduate junior (IIM-S classmate, Internship company mateJ ), had arrived a day earlier and he said one thing which really comforted me, “Maple, inga makkal nambala maari sema ghaleej than J onium prachana ila (Son-in-law, Here people are as Jovial as we are, so no worries) “.

Inauguration ceremony was the first time I was wearing a suit and I was already feeling like an executive. I helped many with my core competency of knotting a tie. J ... One fellow exclaimed, “See, this is the advantage of having work experience, you must have been used to all these corporate culture”. I nodded my head in a matter-of-fact way  J . Only I know the amount of time I spent on YouTube videos telling about different kinds of knots and after a long struggle picked up the easiest oneJ.

The week that followed when seniors made us follow their footsteps was easily the rigorous week i had spent in my whole life. It was a perfect finishing school for us and a real welcome to the busy IIM life!

28 out of 66 in an IIM is probably a record female ratio that can just never be beaten in many years to come. Yet, no luck on that front. J This sentence would just make my close friends of the past to ask what’s new J and would probably exclaim “Chotte ke naseeb mein nahin hain” .. ( A famous cricket dialogue J ).

Over these 10 months, the 66 of us have become a seriously close bunch with all the differences amongst us notwithstanding. Over this time, I have been quietly appreciating so many for their unique qualities and trying to enjoy my life as much as possible, for I know I am goanna get screwed big time, the moment I am going to step outside.

My top 10 moments in IIM Shillong which I vividly remember are:

1) The way my ghost drama sent a chill through the spines of many in my batch.. Especially kaushik exclaiming, “ipdi irundha intha campus la epdi pasanga irupaanga” ( If the campus is this spooky, how can students live) .. LOL...

2) Accounts classes by Manav..” Debit what comes in, credit what goes out..” Actually nothing came into our minds.. The height of it was when Dude was explaining Cash flow statement to Me, Maruthi and Adhi. A fin dumbo teaching to 3 bigger dumbos J , It can’t get better.

3) Spandan which saw many talents of PGP09 come to the fore especially Rukma as a pianist and a singer! Little did we know that she was rated world’s best pianist by Trinity College of music ahead of ARR!! And yeah spandan also saw some of us shake our legs J

4) Kopda cup – IIM Shillong’s IPL sans controversy J . Each team had a guy as a captain and 3 gals as CXOs. 10000 points were given to each team for bidding players to form the team. Kedia going for 5400 to Sirjee’s team was gross over valuation J . I hope Sirjee does not do such gross errors in his internship at a premier investment bank J

5) Trip to cherapunji!! Extremely good trip with as many as 40 from the batch turning up J . Though it was not exactly the season to visit Cherapunji, the fun we had there more than made up for the off season. The one picture of that trip would be the flying picture clicked by Abhinav!!! The trip had a real kick start with our one and only.. “thaaaaddd i dnt knoooo” blocking the taxis as we had not informed about the trip J

6) Kaushik humming answers in a tune to us from behind in tamil in Finance surprise quizzes. It will be like.. ( ondru thavaru, moondru unmai, naangu unmai, .. ) . For all those who probably have mistaken him to a finance stud, I am sorry, he is not J , just that Manav jain from SRCC sits beside him J

7) The lectures in which Kedia and Joshi don’t miss a chance to go in front of the class to sing some random 1970s hindi song. Only thing that was not done was a proper Khasi choreo J .

8) Who can forget the real bashing that was given by Mr.Corporate in the Marketing – 2 class and the way FMCG group was called and blasted whenever he felt likeJ . Esha being asked to stand up in the class by him to explain her business research project which she had not started at all. And Esha as smart as ever opens her laptop with an empty excel sheet and blabbers something in good EnglishJ. But Mr. Corporate as shrewd as he is, blasts her with repeated questions, “U please tell me the test u conducted and the significance level”..

9) The selfless people in my batch who shared all the material that they had to the entire batch just goes to show the kind of people we have out here who are an extinct species in any other IIM where dirty competition is prevalent.

I once asked Keshav, the eternal supplier of exam materials as to why he does that when he so easily keep it for himself and have a sustained competitive advantage over others. His reply – “What is the fun in me scoring better with an extra material that none of the others have. That is no achievement.. With everyone equally armed, If I manage to do better, that is a real indicator of my preparation and efficiency”. This is IIM-S for you!!!! I was really proud of him that day!!

10) The wonderfully organised farewell for our seniors with everyone contributing wholeheartedly. Muzz and others were at their creative best in implementing the bollywood theme and Debu sitting on the floor cutting the paper into many star shaped figures with a scissor at 3 in the night was a picture of real commitment!!

In a nutshell, I think the one year has been one jolly ride for me!! With many close friends and useless bakkars!! I just hope the second year turns out to be even more eventful!! The awesome66  that we are, am sure it is very much within our reach to make it happen J ..

As a parting note, to all those who are goanna get a final call from IIM-S on May 12th, consider yourself lucky to have got an opportunity to study in this great college in the Scotland of the east!! Am sure you will realise this is an IIM with a difference!!! J