Tuesday 19 June 2012

That year, this day


 Yesterday morning, a friend of mine, woke up at 9 after ignoring the two previous alarms. This was his usual routine ever since Euro 2012 kicked-off. While struggling to open his eyes wide, he heard someone keeping a coffee mug on the table. That’s it; he said to himself, it’s the final wake-up call. (BTW, I started hating the term “WAKE-UP CALL” after the international tour) So, rubbing his eyes, he headed towards the washroom which  was already occupied. Too lazy to head towards the other washroom downstairs he returned to his room and switched his laptop on. While the computer was loading, he took a few sips of his coffee, saying to himself,”Sher bhi kabhie brush karta hai?”at the same time not realizing that,” Sher kabhi coffee bhi nahi peeta.” By the time he went through four notifications on facebook, the coffee had done its job. He rushed to the washroom which luckily was unoccupied this time. As he was getting late for his office (read Summer Internship) he came out running to switch his lappy off. But as he was doing that, for the third time in 12 years of his computer usage, the clock at the right bottom corner caught his attention. Let’s leave the first two occasions for some other day and concentrate on the third one. The date read 19.06.2012. It occurred to him, that it’s exactly a year now. It was the same day, last year; he shifted to the XIME hostel. He started recalling everything he had been through in this year, so much that he lost track of time. By the time he realized, it was 10:30. And even with his express pace (i.e. getting dry-clean ready, having cereals for break-fast and driving at 140kmph) it would have taken another 45 minutes more. As soon he reached the figure “1 hour 15 minutes late” while calculating, he decided against going to the office and started penning down what he remembered all this while. This is what his diary has to say.


Dear Diary,

Today, I have completed one year in XIME and I must say what an year it has been. However, in the beginning I was terribly disappointed by the college. My idea of a B-School was a 20 acre campus, night canteen where people have a maggi or two while working on their assignments, interactive classes, management fests and liberty of all sorts, which BTW,  was not wrong by any means. A typical B-school in the country, be it from the ivy league like IIM-A,B,C,L,I , XLRI ,FMS , MDI or from tier two like SIBM , MICA , IMT or even from tier 4 like Amity, Bimtech, IILM,  etc. has these salient features. For the first few days in XIME, I was in a state of shock. A 4 acre campus, girl’s in time 9 p.m, class seating arrangement roll no. wise, no management fests, no participation in other college’s management fests gave nightmares to me. After watching Prison Break, I used to wonder how I will feel being inside a prison and Presto!!! GOD sent me to one. It took me some time to realize that you don’t need a state of the art  infrastructure or a set of very lenient rules to have fun, all you need is a good bunch of friends. This is one area where XIME is extremely rich. Where else would you get to live with people from 21 states of the country, play football and basketball with the Americans , going to gym with the Frenchs, having breakfast with Italians and praying with the Russians ( very few will get this one :P)in a tier 2 /3 college. There is so much to learn from each one of them. I learnt that all South Indians don’t use coconut oil for cooking, just Mallus do that and that Punjabis don’t eat chhola bhatura everyday. It’s not just diversity but the talent of the batch which amazed me. For the first month I was in a state of awe, almost everyone was better than me in everything. Performing arts, studies, sports, philanthropy, you name it and these guys can do it, not just do it , do it like a pro. It is them who make your trips to Skandagiri and Wonder La a memorable one, who make you ride 60kms in the night for a cup of coffee. Sometimes I imagine how dull my international trip would have been without them. It is these friendships which make it so very entertaining to sit at the same spot everyday throughout the year. While most of my batchmates are my friends there are still 10 whom I just can’t stand. But then what’s a college life without rivalry. Playing XPL , Xoccer Liga without rivalry would have been a tad bit boring.  In this one year I have had experiences which I will remember for the lifetime. The good part is we still have around 10 months left in this program. And with newly developed, not so subtle changes in college administration and management, we can start afresh. We can negotiate again on the timing of placement week, Fresher’s party, Farewell party, Management fest participation policy, Conducting Management fests, Celebration of festivals of each culture and religion(like the dandiya night which was a tradition in XIME a few years back), Night- canteen and a unisex one at that, Girl’s in-time etc. Just imagine, if we managed to have all this fun with restrictions how much more fun we will have without them. Chances are we will hear a “NO” instead of a “NO-NO-NO-NO-NO”, but it’s still worth a try. We will leave no stone unturned to make this year an ever better one.

Diary, I just can’t tell you how much I am missing my college and how eagerly I am waiting for the 9th of july. BTW, I am so sorry I won’t come to you for a week as unknowingly I have filled the space till 24-06-2012 , today itself. I hope you will understand, I get a bit nostalgic when it comes to college. See you on Monday, till then take care.



So guys, these were the pages from his diary which he wrote yesterday. FYI, this guy is not me, har baar mai hi hounga kya? And gee I don’t write a diary.
A very Happy Anniversary to all my batch mates and thanks for being there. Friends or foes, my life would not have been as rocking without you.
Cheers


God Bless
J