(If you are a purist IIMCian, and believe everything that happens here is good, don't read it. And this is a case in point of all IIMs, and the criticism holds true, maybe truer, for other IIMs.) And so it ends. People had said this place grows on you, that these will be the best days of our lives, and I was like, "Yeah, surely. Definitely, I am surely going to love this place. What with the campus situated in the middle of nowhere, and birds who shit at you all the time. And with its evident focus only on placements and nothing else, yes by the time I pass out I will be really sorry to leave it." That, as you can probably make out was a sarcasm. But despite of everything mentioned above, I am a little sorry to leave this place. And I am going to miss it sometimes.
The first opinion of Joka as you enter its gates after a bumpy ride from the Howrah station, to be very honest, is nothing remarkable. In fact, it is the exact opposite of remarkable. While you have been told that IIM Calcutta is a bird sanctuary, with XYZ species of birds visiting it, the entire scope of that statement doesn't hit you till you see the main road of the campus littered with bird shit. And then there is the -----------. A week of intense action, when you do start hating yourself for ever being lucky enough to make it to this place.
And then came probably the most depressing session in IIMC, when people - who were fellow students like us, and probably younger - but who had managed to impress IIMC professors in interviews one year before our batch did - told us in a holier-than-thou tone, "You are here for slot 0 and nothing else." The reason they were entitled to keep this tone was because they were the Placement Coordinators - students with the maximum power in IIMC. Their statement about slot 0 basically meant that all that we did in the next two years was with an eye on the final placements. Thats the kind of place it was meant to be. Happily, and fortunately, I found many people who did not think that way. This post is a toast to them, and the wonderful time I have had because of them. This is a post dedicated to Olypub, Someplace Else, Atrium, and even Artland. This is a post dedicated to people who were just happy in being there, and did not give a more than necessary worry about what awaited them after two years.This is a post dedicated to the Flash Gordon Trophy, Quad Cricket, and general bakaiti in the NH Quad, as well as to DC++, Aara, NeoNazi, Bhatti, CoolDude, whatsinaname and all the movies, TV shows and porn availale there.
Thanks so much for making this place what it is!!!
I still hate the "I pat your back and you pat mine" attitude that screams out from this place,and the "IIMC rawks" genre of people, who are found a dime a dozen within the boundaries of Joka.
This place does not rock because it ensures you a good first job, or the chance of a great career, but it rocks despite it. That here you can still find people who are ready to get dead drunk and hear a JBS version of "Hey Jude" or an Altaf hit at 4 in the night, when there is a class at 8 in the morning. That here people will be willing to go to Olypub on the eve of a mid-term, or better, get high in their room. That here people are ready to leave aside studies and career for a few moments, and just enjoy the participation in the Quad cricket or the Flash Gordon trophy. That people can just sometimes forget the destination and enjoy the journey for what it is.
This is the biggest problem with IIM Calcutta, or any other IIM for that matter, the 2 years are just seen as a means to the end of that (point one!) million dollar salary, and not an end in themselves. So unlike engineering colleges, where all you care about in the first three (or four) years is just to enjoy life for what it is - without thinking about the future. That, unfortunately is not the case with IIMs.
So, well it feels good, that some people, for some time at least, can think about the journey more than the destination themselves, and that for sometime, whether you get a slot 0 or not does not matter.
(I might be a loser, but at least I am a whining loser!!!).
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10 comments:
At last a post that is remotely connected to the 20th century. Its great that you wrote about the stuff that makes me miss Joka especially the Footer matches, the Night Canteen and the great times in the Wing. The discussions in the Wing were more intellectually simulating than any other I ever had, though I hardly contributed to any, the intellectual part that is. Hoping you write something about the wing as well.
The picture you painted about the IIMs is in a strange way very familiar…even though you mentioned the Engineering colleges in an opposite context, being from an IIT, I can’t differ less…for each such campus in our country which proclaim its students to be the crème de la crème suffers from this imposed sense of awe…and then again, each such campus in its own capacity, has the ability to ‘rawk’ despite all that! And that’s just the beauty and that’s just what each of us falls for!
Dude, I cannot agree with you more on most of the things. However, at least now we should be convinced that all this does happen in engineering colleges as well. We, hailing from the dungeons of Nescafe, were unaware or unwilling to accept, but many others did fall into this elite category that you talk about. But great that we could come across those people who really live life!
(Fatter) Well, I think you meant the 21st century. And wait, as soon as I get time off from fixing the house and 15 hour work days, I will be there, writing about the greatest wing in the history of the world. And the greatest footer team that never won nething.
(Vartika) I guess you are right, especially now with stakes being much higher in IIT also. Back in those days, times were simpler - but looking back at it - I was still frustrated with what they were. Except that now I realize how simpler, and hence better, time was back then.
(Aarti) We just make life a lot more complicated than it is, dont we? Or maybe we just get lucky every time - Hope u do get this.
(Arnav) Man, I miss all those things too..except that my new work schedule has made me forget everything else except work - to which I go back now. Bon neuf!!!
Bon neuf! Good lord u r overworked! Great post. CAMs are there with some of the sentiments :P
no new entry still....im waiting.
now being outta iimc... guess you're outta the ambit of the law of silence governing life with the IIMC Rawks brethren.. that would rather keep family issues within the family rather than talk about them in public..
in our own beloved lingo.. CAMs with most of the things you say!
wish we could communicate this to more of the dreamy eyes and the powers that be to just do a reality check!
Bon Voyage.. with your professional journey..
So, one final toast to the times gone by? :)
IIMC ROCKS! PUTLAKE! AANDOZ! CAMS! NOMS!
Really Nice Post......but not at any point in the post did I feel that you were Nostalgic.... [:)]
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