The contingent of eight from IIMK landed in Hyderabad at the ungodly hour of five in the morning and hoping against hope for an escort from ISB, we were pleasantly surprised when we actually got to reach ISB in a jiffy, what with the Qualis and the Esteem from ISB giving us the royal treatment. Despite the twilight hours, the first impression of the campus was massive. As things got clearer and I came out from the bath in one of those ISB apartments (with four air-conditioned bedrooms, a living room furnished with sofa sets, television, fridge, hot plates, two three-star-hotel-standard bathrooms, and people coming to clean up the 'house' and change bed sheets everyday), I realised that ISB campus was actually a class apart. Although it is very difficult to compare the campus of ISB with that of our own IIMK, I could get a better parallel for the ISB Campus with that of Infy.
In fact, starting from the lawns to the rooms, to the food courts, to the cafes and stores, to even the rest rooms, the campus was exactly like what Infy or Wipro would typically look like. It was actually a nice feeling and for me, a nostalgic one too, as we moved on from one place to another in their huge attrium and the central building holding the entire academic block and a tastefully built auditorium (more close to a PVR-esque theater, actually).
As for the event I had gone to participate in, got a missile thrown on any hopes of a a good performance. I started badly with stutters and pauses and by the time I was half way through my talk, I knew that I had blown it. Since we did not get a chance to listen to the other speakers, I really do not know how bad we were (or conversely, how close we were to the grand prize :-)) With the tech quiz guys bombing out too, the situation for the IIMK contingent did not look all that rosy. So it was that I teamed up with Rajat and Gaurav with Suraj to enter the technology on-the-spot case contest. A good desision it turned out to be for me, with the Patni people (who were sponsoring the event) giving away tee shirts, pens and pads to all participants :-).
Two teams of Gaurav-Suraj and Baid-Sinha reached the finals of the Biz Quiz and as I joined them after the dismal performance in Antakshari prelims, I got some much needed solace with the entertaining questions and quiz format of VV Ramannan (of the Hindu Young World fame). The Antakshari prelims, where I had teamed up with Rajat and Anupam, had us aslmost done over (what with our not being able to recollect the chak dhum dhum song from Dil to Pagal Hai) till the fateful time in the middle of the biz quiz. Hearing my name all of a sudden from the quizmaster's PA system, and being compared to Mukesh and Rafi was a surprise. It appeared that the Antakshari organizers had actually selected us for the finals and since Rajat and Anupam were nowhere to be seen, I had to form a team with Pragati and despite the disadvantage that the organizers kept reminding us of, we decided to have some fun and go on stage. In the end, it actually turned out to be great with both of us belting out song after song and having a whale of a time. Despite her protests, Pragati actually turned out to be good and actually made sure that we finished fourth out of the five finalists :-).
After the disappointment of the biz quiz, where neither of our two teams could make it to the prizes, the fashion show and the party made up for a lot. ISB does have more than a fair share of girls and of these girls (58 out of a batch of about 250), most are actually good-looking and more than that, smart and bold. In fact, the attire at the party took me by a bigger surprise as compared to that at the fashion show. This was one party where people actually came dressed up for the ocassion. After an hour of wondering how and when I should get on to the dance floor full of unknown people (the others from the IIMK contingent having given me the ditch), I finally got in and what a time I had. With so much choice, there was not one song for which I could not get a decent partner...in one word, it was awesome.
Having danced till about 3 in the morning, another early morning was a pain that had to be endured, however, for the excellent breakfast that the ISB guys served. The food, in toto, was amazing and it was not just the variety that amazed me, but even the ambience of the place, combined with the food's shear taste and quality, that took the breath away. They do pay 90K for the food, though :-)
The second day was a little better with Gaurav and Suraj actually winning a prize for IIMK. The tough stand that they took against meaningless acquisitions by Patni and their actually spreading their competencies instead of consolidating on them earned them recognition from the judges and more than that, the second prize of 15 thousand rupees. Pragati's finance paper presentation was up last and by the time the high quality stuff (I know now that I need to work really hard if I am to be anywhere near the standards of those people) ended, it was already six and the chase was on for the train at 7:25 from Secundeabad.
With an hour separating us from the railway station, we made a Just In Time start at 6:30, hopin to make it somehow. The auto driver that took me and Gaurav along excused himself from the job by handing us over to better hands of a younger guy with a younger and meaner (!!!) machine. However, in the process of rolling over from one auto to another, my laptop refused to be rolled aside and was left in the Auto No. 1. By the time we realized the loss, we were halfay to the station. Hoping against hope that the auto sriver would have handed the laptop over to the second auto coming right behind us and carrying Rajat and Pragati, we decided to make it to the station first and think later.
Gaurav was actually pretty bogged down with the jinx that he said follows him on all trips. However, we did make it on time to the station with the train being delayed by half an hour, too. A call to the security gate of ISB allayed my fears, too with the information that my laptop was safe with them. Ramit, one of the coordinators for Poseidon, the ISB festival, has my laptop with him now and he will be managing the thing's getting to Bangalore shortly. I will have to go down some weekend (probably this one) to collect it from there.
I did want to spend a day in Bangalore, what with having already missed Prof Saji Gopinath's presentation and with the chances of a good birthday-cum-prize winning treat from Suraj, but with Pragati intent on making it to Calicut by the day bus, I decided to carry forward with my earlier plans. Believe me, the day trip to Calicut, though not all that uncomfortable, was a lesson and a memory, what with playing hide and seek with sun filtering through the windows, and making it just in time to the bus after the lunch halt, loaded with a bunch of raw bananas.
All was hunky and dory enough till I reached the hostel and realised that the key to my room was in the case of my laptop and as such, I was stranded till I either broke my door or found a suitable alternative. I could do neither and despite the flood of spam linking me with long haired people and talking about people I wanted to sleep with, I finally made it somehow through the night, out of my room and living, as Shounak remarked, out of my briefcase (in this case, though, it was Somas' bag). Luckily, I could get the duplicate keys to my room this morning and since the laptop should be here by the weekend, too, I have no real worries on that count.
In the meanwhile, things had heated up back at IIMK, too with another of the email wars following a seminar (this time, it was Horizons 2004, the annual management festival of IIMK). The senior-junior debate that ranged from people questioning others' achievements to sending sarcastic mails, raged on and on, so much so, that I had 101 mails in my inbox by the time I could make it to the CC to check my mails. The ITC Business Plan Contest was also over and with two teams having won (and probably qualified for the finals), congratulations are in order. Congratulations are also in order for the 14 people who got through Wipro and the five that made it to IBM in the laterals placement season for the seniors here at IIMK.
Ultimately, after all the fracas and the fun and the tension and the experience, I am back at campus with the last phase of the term approaching fast. It is going to be another spate of assignments, projects, submissions, and examinations for me, as we fight it out to finish another 1/6th of our MBA course.
