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.......