AvantGarde

Finally breaking away from the cobwebs of laziness and lethargy, I decide to start off my long planned MBA diaries. Notwithstanding the tough competition already in this segment (from 5 point writers with minimal literary ability but absolute mass appeal), I hope that all will enjoy and connect to at least something said in the coming blogs.

I don’t want to bother the readers with a blow-by-blow account of all the happenings in the eventful two and half months of MBA life at IIT-K already completed, I’ll just share some of the learnings I have had during this time.

Rules:

Rule#1 : No matter what, do not miss the week-long orientation program at the start of the MBA program at IIT-K. Those 7 days are the best fun you will have in a long time. We personally spent it very fruitfully getting to know each other, learning card games, dancing to totally sidey-numbers, getting the low-down about the institute from any and everyone with a voice-box. There were many whimsical incidents which happened during this time which left us feeling as bewildered as the abundant peacocks in the campus gawking at so many green-eared freshers.

Rule#2: Don’t ever feel obligated to do anything just because it is the norm followed upto now. I have seen plenty of people who bent the rules, stepped on lots of egos and basically made life hell for the organizers and got away with it all with smiles intact. Basically, this rule can boil down to: Tension lene ka nahi, dene ka.

Rule#3: Anyone intellectually capable of voicing an opinion (which in a campus of so many brilliant minds is uncountable) will definitely give the sound advice that “Professors are GOD. Do not mess with them, do not antagonize them, don’t test their patience and definitely don’t question their methods as they hold all the keys”. I haven’t yet tried breaking this rule. Probably further blogs may validate or invalidate this tenet. However, till there is tangible proof of this rule being eyewash, do not try breaking it.

Rule#4: Insects are your best friends. They will visit you all the time, jump up and down in pleasure at seeing you, check out all your clothes and shoes and stay by your side without being judgmental. The sooner you accept this fact and remind yourself that they are the actual owners of the campus and we are just visitors, the sooner you will stop breaking into crazy Michael Jackson type steps to shoo them off.

Rule#5: No matter how hard you try, there is no way you will be able to keep up with all the countless things happening at the same time in IIT-K. There are sports, cultural, dramatics, dance, foreign languages, astronomy, science gatherings and robotics conventions to keep pace with at all times. Unless you are GOD or have developed teleportation and cloning abilities, there is no way you can put your foot in so many shoes. Oh and by the way, Academics is also important so add that to the list of things to do.

Rule#6: We need to transcend to a higher plane of consciousness when it comes to food. As long as you can break away from earthly expectations of taste, hygiene and variety, you will do just fine and may actually gain some weight while you are staying at IIT-K. If you do end up losing weight, it becomes quite a cool topic to talk about as all students generally love ganging up and cursing the Mess committee, the hall president, the student body etc (pointing fingers is so cool you see)

Rule#7 : You have come here to study in the most premier institution of the country so accept a few trade-offs. One major one which takes time to get used to is the completely skewed sex ratio. There are quite a few girls in the campus. Only problem is that there are a humongous group of guys who are constantly in contention for this scarce resource. Add to that the unfortunate case of certain girls already having existing boyfriends and the picture becomes gloomier. So do not feel dismayed and betrayed. It is a trend which has always been there. Better to channelize the energy into positive things like games, sports, movies, blaring loud music and oh studies of course. There is always Antaragni to look forward to (our own version of Woodstock).

Rule#8: Make friends with your cycle and the cycle repair guy. In a sprawling campus like IIT-K, even the ATM is a distance which would have entailed taking out the car at home. If you are lucky enough to get halls closer to the actual (academic) action, then reaching class on time is relatively simplistic. However, hostels in far flung reaches of the campus means your mental calculation starts on the amount of travel time factoring in exigencies like low tyre pressure, doubling of a friend in need, puncture etc(notice that all factors are cycle related showing how important it is as a life saver). One of my friends had so many problems with his cycle that he finally knocked on the doors of the nearby temple to seek divine intervention.

Rule#9: Always keep time at hand for sudden emergencies such as a popular movie screening, inter-hall sports meet, cultural events, and department bash. Somehow, the party spirit never dampens here which means you either relegate studies to the farthest corner or be the faster-than-a-supercomputer type of brain. But in no circumstances can you miss out on the action. After all, that’s what makes us different from the rest.

Rule#10: Believe with all your heart and soul that IIT-K is the best IIT because that is an utterly universally accepted fact which just bumps our pride up a few notches and reduces those mere mortals in other IITs fuming and gawking.

Nabarun Sengupta

MBA Batch of 2012,

IIT Kanpur