On Power Cuts and Perspectives....

And into one end [of the Total Perspective Vortex], he plugged the whole of reality as extrapolated from a piece of fairy cake, and into the other, he plugged his wife: so that when he turned it on she saw in one instant the whole infinity of creation and herself in relation to it.
To Trin Tragula's horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain........

-Douglas Adams
(The Restaurant at the End of the Universe)

We experienced a power cut on campus today. I was walking down the corridor, towards the water cooler at around 9 pm, when suddenly all lights went out. Black. That was how the scene looked. Or perhaps it did not look that way at all, for I could not claim to see anything. It took me a few seconds to realize that the whole campus was experiencing a power cut. As I ambled on roomwards, with the support of the wall, I reached the outing towards the terrace, or the 'Titanic', to speak colloquially (The architect here displayed some very obvious emotional influences from James Cameron's masterpiece. Hint: Think of the I am the king of the world scene).

I looked out and started onto the terrace. It was a sight I had perhaps never seen in Mumbai. A night sky unpolluted, uninhibited by any sort of light, or buildings, skyscrapers, skylines. The stars twinkled in thousands, millions. There were no neon signs to distract. Moonlight was still nascent, growing with each night. The clouds had also spared the skies on this instance. It was just the stars, the moon and the night sky. No lights except for a lonely motorbike rider near Nescafe.

A group of seniors gathered on after a few seconds.

"Beautiful", I heard that muttered somewhere. Could not agree more. Beautiful, astounding, confusing, flabbergasting, discombobulating and all the other unpronounceable adjectives you can think of. It was the beauty of eternity and infinity. And this beauty is frightening. You never know when eternity will end. You can never guess the boundaries of infinity. Until ofcourse you consider chocolate cakes...... To get a better idea, imagine an infinitely long chocalate cake and time you would take to eat it all. Also consider all the indigestion you would have to suffer if the chocolate cake is made in the mess. All this chocolate cake stuff quickly put a lot of perspective on my appetite for deserts. It disappeared faster than the sputtering electricity supply to a certain management institute in Northern India.

Beauty, especially that which challenges all your concepts of proportion, either degenerates all thoughts in vicinity to poetic enchantment or drains all the guarded optimism you had been preserving for such a day. Believe me it is a shitty feeling to think about the cosmic importance of 'Effects of changes in the foreign exchange rates - European and Indian Accounting Standards' while watching more than an eyeful of stars staring smugly at you. This leads to cynicism about the whole process of living in general or begets creative rationalizations about the importance of accounting standards in alien galaxies. Both of which are not good thoughts to have when a host of quizzes are lined up for the coming week.....

The power was back in two minutes. Everyone trundled back to their rooms. I did too. I was bit disconcerted, for I had seen something obvious. Something so obvious, that I had never seen it ever before. Something so obvious that its better left ignored. It will take some time to recede into mundanity but I will succeed....

To Trin Tragula's horror, the shock completely annihilated her brain, but to his satisfaction he realized that he had proved conclusively that if life is going to exist in a Universe of this size, then one thing it cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion.

Life starts

[Post incomplete, no intention ever to get down to completing it!]

"We have to write our CV's.. Find your (tor)mentors".

It started with this. Phone calls, engaged, busy, not available... Call again.

"You are not going for the health run ! First go there and then come for getting the CVs checked"

The 'Health' Run involved running around 2 rounds of the ring road which is loong (3 kms is a conservative guess I think!) and being all happy and cool about it while your seniors snapped your photographs riding bikes. It also involved the pretty 'healthy' aspect of getting cramps in your feet good enough to trouble you for the whole of the next day.

The more than healthy over, I call again. Meet.
"This is childish."
"You expect someone to believe this!"
"Don't tell me you call this an ethical mistake!"

Everything short of tear this sheet away and get lost! After begging, borrowing and some (unsuccessful) attempts at forging signatures, finally submitted the CVs exactly at 12.00. Whew! This work is done. Now I can rest.

" You heard about the case discussion tomorrow ?"

Whaaat!

Skitter of to the CC. Read the case till I hear the mynahs chirping.

"We also have a test later on!"

Meanwhile the 8-hour per day registration modules are on! Goodbye sleep!

Case over! Test over! Time for sleeping....

"Get your groups together. There is a presentation tomorrow."
Phone calls, meetings, presentations prepared...

Registrations started too. It was then that I understood the institute's way of inculcating physical fitness. I stared unbelievably at the pile of books kept on the desk. It took my brain some time to comprehend the ingenious plan that they had in hand. Two days of doing this, and all my cultivated and preserved flab of 21 years will go down the drain.

Anyway, presentations or the rather 'we will have fun at your expense' ragging sessions were done with before we were called for a batch meeting.

Now was the time when the results would be announced, as to who got in which section!

[In the interests of preserving sanity and some traditions, I will leave the story here!]

A Warm Welcome

IIM Lucknow has active students, enlightened faculty, competent doctors, enterprising (and some may mistake this for fleecing) shopkeepers and pretty helpful watchmen. But what often escapes the eyes of the general media is the army of insects that reside on its lawns. The day I entered the institute, the day when it rained, that was the day when the insects decided to welcome me.

Man! Was my room colourful!! Green, Black, Brown, blue - just think of any colour and I could all colours of insects. I was pretty overwhelmed with this show of affection. Infact, some of these were friendly enough to get physical. Which was the time when I too decided to reciprocate. Physically. Most of the insects too were overwhelmed by my display of gratitude I guess for most of them never woke up after this. As for the ones who did, I made sure that they had their throat choked with emotion.

That was the day I realized what they meant when they said you will learn more out of class than inside it during your MBA. I mean how many people can learn to become human replacements of HIT in one day. Not many I guess. But most of us here at IIML did that. And you cannot even imagine the pride of being a 'TeesMaarKhan' (The khan who killed thirty) till you actually accomplish it. Talk of extra-curricular achievements and job satisfaction! All this even before the classes had started!

The rest of the day was spent exploring the campus, from the mess which cooks paneer every other day and a sweet everyday to the Nescafe outlet where you get Polo. From the temple to the guest houses, from the slums to the suburbs this was the place that I was going to live in for two years. So, two years it is with classmates, faculty, staff and most-importantly : the insects!

First Impressions...

(Describes day on 26th March 2006)

There were 4 extra people inside the compartment. So 12 people shared space that meant to accomodate 8. The train was Pushpak Express. Mumbai to Lucknow in 24 hours. Or 26 perhaps to welcome the uninvited guests hopping in. PNB picked me up from the coach itself for a free trip to the campus (and also made me ponder on the kind of sea-change the PSU has gone under).

Rains, reasonably heavy rains, welcomed me to the city. The first rains of the city. Rains which made the station crowded, the taxi late and the journey long. Ones which robbed the summer of its ferocity, laid a patina of wetness on all seeable existence and declared loudly, the state of the blocked gutters. The PNB car veered through the streets, between bungalows and gardens, skirting the edges of the impromptu pools near the 'Parivartan Chowk', and finally giving up and wading through the submerged streets of Aliganj. Political posters presented themselves with an unremarkable ubiquity. Only the face of Sharad Pawar, Bal Thackeray and Co. were here replaced by Messrs. Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh. The rest of the journey was quotidian and marked by attempts at pretty mundane small talk.

The campus is 3.4 km from Sitapur Road, a fact which lends its name to the institute band '3.4'. It is another fact that the only thing musical in that journey was the vibrating car and the rattling luggage it was loaded with. A road sign proclaimed proudly, 'IIM Lucknow'. This was followed by many quotations of the usual quota of personalities on whom has been thrust the responsibility of being the 'visionaries' and 'missionaries' of the world. The car took a turn to the right.

A sharp turn. There right before me were the images of the most famous charioteer ever guiding the chariot, the horses and a substanial part of the rest of the world with it. In the hands of his rider, one of the most redoubtable archers ever, the Gandiva stood ready. In sharp contrast or perhaps synergy, stood leading the man whose philosophy of non-violence was inspired by the charioteer and the archer waging the war of righteousness.

As the car drove in the enormity of the campus sank in. Names of the inventor of Yoga and the progenitor of Indian ecomics (rather politics) passed by, as did the hostels.

I was finally in IIM Lucknow.......