Week 2 at Great Lakes

There are times at a B school when you come with a 100 expectations that is built on a lot of premised fed into the mind due to innumerous interactions with alumni. I came with 0 expectations as, to be frank, I realy dont know where I want to go. I see that I have a certain inclination towards marketing, but given that the MBA program exposes you to a plethora of choices, made me to rest in peace and not worry about specialisations at this stage.

Monday

We were awaiting results of our tests and the wait is killing. In between we hear that we are to head off to a resort called Green Meadows in the evening for an interaction with our senior batch. The test results partially arrive and the news is enough to create a mini stampede as the din and the chaos that prevails, makes me say "to hell with my marks" and I decide to head to drink water, but damn there is competition even there. If that is not enough, the toilets and the lunch room is crowded too and I somewhow manage to wade in and wait till eternity. I have learnt my first lesson at the B school. Competition and clamour can be unnerving, but that's life.

The party at ECR began at 6, and the seniors manage to put on a decent show, that kept us entertained. I did manage to meet up with alumni of previous batches and got a clear picture of placements here. Uncle Bala, as we call him, is a big hit amongst the students for his witty nature and inspiration when he talks. He is the chairman of the B School and is a ful time professor of accounting at Kellogs, and is a member of the board of many comittees in India including serving as a member of the planning commission headed by Montek Singh Aluwalia.

I see an amazing sense of camaradrie and energy among the class of 07. They would be gone in a couple of days and we would be the flagbearers of Great Lakes. After a couple of hours, I had to give in to my stomach cringing, and ended up with a quick dinner, which was not so palatable.I had to drop a Bihari classmate of mine at a certain point, helping him with directions to reach chetput from Palavakkam. I headed back tired and terribly exhausted.

Tuesday-

The day started at 7 30 am, as I rushed for an 8 am class. I dont even remember what class we had.Must have been some orientation class explaining us how some functions work. I have found this awesome place in class, whenever I end up in one of those oreientation classes.This is right behind a pillar and if you doze off nor does the prof get to see you, neither do you embarass the speaker. The results arrive , I pass in Maths and Micro Economics, but end up flunking in Financial Accounting. I happen to see the results after every one has seen their results as I am fed up of competition. Another incident that competition forces me to do is stop eating Chappati's for lunch as the crowd for chappatis also forms a big line.

Its been some time since I interacted with folks outside the B School, so when I get a couple of hours free, I drive down to the Elliots beach and meet up my friend from Engineering days, Kishore. We end up speaking a lot of scary things on death and my mood is even more screwed.

I observe a bunch of kids who play football and hit an elderly gentleman,and the elderly gentleman gets a little serious with the kids and decides not to give the ball. I am so much reminded of my childhood where I used to fight with a lot of neighbour whenever I used to hit the cricket ball into their garden,balcony and house. I was very argumentative as I negotiated with them as my life depended on that "Cosco Cricket" Tennis ball.

After a couple of hours in the evening on the beach, I headed for the next party at Le Meridian,when I noticed a female who was traveling at zero acceleration and as I tried getting closer to give a piece of my mind, my eye fell on her hands, and found too much of hair on the hands. After driving 5 minutes paralelly with her, I realised it was a guy with long hair.

Once I reached Le Meridian, I got to interact with a few seniors and I spotted 2 known seniors from school, but sometimes known contacts still dont help when you want to find out about someother chick in their batch, as I found out. We welcomed the seniors into the discotheque and for me it was my first time at a disq. Initially I was happy sitting on the benches and observing people dance, but when some known songs came along, inhibitions were thrown and I joined the folks at the dance floor. I guess dancing is all about the body reacting to the mind and how music can be tranlsated physically.Given that I cant move my legs for nuts, I decided to just do three or 4 steps irrespective of the music, thanks to Pradeep's timely advice.Guess what... I had a few people even copying me. I had arrived..... I was no Hrithik Roshan, but left feeing like one :-)

In between we did have a few formal dance presentations which were choreographed well by the ladies in our batch, but a couple of guys also decided to showcase themselves.Publicity stunts during such important meets does raise "guy" recall factor.It was funny to watch events unfold, nothing against the guys, but I just felt there were better roadways to gaining attention.

More coming soon.