Arnab Goswami
might damage his voice after engaging in a two hours long verbal battle with a
politician, but the students of IIM Lucknow can scream out loud enough to break
records and statistics. Such is the enthralling crowd of the best brains in the
country. And such is the rare occasion when these unlikely and uncommon
quintessential would-be managers do get together to shout.
The 29th batch of PGP entered the
gates of IIM Lucknow with a population of diverse background from lawyers to musicians
to cricketers to pharmacists… and a smile on each of their faces. Their eyes,
wide with self esteem for getting the IIM tag, were awaiting tears of anxiety
and tension in the recent future for the two years ahead. First there was the
CAT… which they could all bell. And there they were, more indifferent than
ever, about any reason why IIM L could be called Hell.
And with the
morning alarm on the 18th day of June, the Induction programme
began. The Director and the Dean welcomed the Governor of UP, the chief guest
of the day. The students in their business formals were already feeling the
warmth of being a CEO or, for lesser ambitious people, a VP of some high-paying
enterprise. That was a Monday.
A week passed
with inflated ego lurking behind wide smiles… only the selfdom to be crushed
mercilessly by the Monday that showed up. Thus began the sleepless nights, the “hell”thy
and strong night mess coffee and chicken rolls, the management jargons and…
hold on your breath… the classes… that got more sleepy than ever. The eyes those
were once as wide as anything could now barely remain open. With their heads as
heavy as lead… they decided to sleep instead. They hung in slow simple harmonic
motions (SHM). And then suddenly, like a bolt in the blue, a surprise quiz was
announced. Boom! The SHMs ceased and the sleep disappeared.
The quiz got
over and the heads hung low with zeroes running in the mind and the heart
pumping fast. And with a bunch of high spirited people around and given the fact
that 99 of every 100 persons think they are innocents, the blame was passed on
to the professors for being cruel, atrocious, barbarous, vicious, brutal,
bloodthirsty, or any other creative complimentary or visionary substitution for
these words … the atmosphere was back to normal… the same sleepless nights, the
night mess coffee and the drowsy classes. The thoughtfully gullible, the willingly
clumsy, the skilfully frenetic, the woeful survivors on milk and cornflakes
make IIM L (read Hell) Hellarious… an unbelievable combination of
always-in-a-hurry nerds and unpredictable times.
