Today while writing this blog the only thought on my mind is my survival through the great IIM dream for I find myself gasping for breath as I run the marathon of fancy job promises every day.
Every day my hypothesis of cracking a ‘good’ job changes based on the opinions I listen to everyday, sometimes asked and most of it unasked, one day it’s Acads, second it changes to extra currics and next it becomes the most glamorous term ‘knowledge’.
However what is a good job is the question unanswered till date.
There are different speculations like money defines it well or work is the factor but then there are people who look at ‘long term’ growth and there are people like me who just listen and plan ‘long term’ with an unknown short term.
In the crux I am confused of why I am here and what this great IIM dream is.

I don’t blame anyone for this confusion of mine but I do blame all collectively for doing this. Since the day I joined IIM I have heard to faculty, seniors of all categories like seniors with good committee, seniors with bad committee, seniors with good grades, seniors with bad grades and so on and I have heard my batch mates, all I can conclude is everybody believes in this dream and is proud to be a part of it.

Now coming to the point what is this great IIM dream?
Is it great job? Or is it great pay pack? Or is it learning? Or is it exposure?

I think it’s a package, of which the above factors are just a part. This dream is actually an obsession of achievement that seeps in the day one gets into an IIM, and two years here just add to it.

Faculty is glad to be teaching at IIM and is obsessed with the power they posses, holding the reigns of students future in totality. The completion of the degree is at their mercy, however what they can add to a student’s knowledge base is a question of research and a mortal soul like me should refrain to comment on that. They (faculty) are henceforth referred to as pedagogue.

Now the first category of students that’s the Seniors (of all kind), what are they obsessed with? They become seniors after surviving the onslaught of the pedagogue, you can visualize it as a ecosystem and darwin’s theory ‘survival of the fittest at work’. After all the factors like relative grading, out of syllabus exams, surprise quizzes and 80% attendance make the ecosystem quite hostile. Added to that they have survived the Disha sessions, CV making, Committee selections and a series of mentors successfully too. Well I think by the work surviving only I am understating their adaptation skills, they have adapted to the ecosystem and are passing it on to the other set that is ‘Juniors’. After the series of accomplishments I think CAT is the thing of past for this well adaptive species.

Juniors, the most naïve sect of this ecosystem called IIM, proud of cracking CAT, still talking of CAT percentiles and last organizations. This species is caught in the flood of dreams and look for a boat called mentorship to lift him up and save him. He will turn into a senior after adaptation. Again Darwin’s ‘Survival of the fittest’ at work!

All those who survive through this dream get the promised benefits but it’s a small interval before the next part of the struggle called job performance and targets get started.

Struggle never stops and never stops the adaptation.
Till then let’s keep struggling and let’s keep adapting.

Congrats for IIM dream!

Well…skipping the marriage series for a moment, I am jumping over to my experience at IIML as a new student.

Disclaimer: These are highly distorted facts about my first Sunday at IIML and any similarity with real events is a coincidence. (Though highly probable!!)

Before I start the narration, please read the following definition:

JTI: Juniors…The Ignorants: Students of this breed are dreamers, doomed with over enthusiasm and blessed with ignorance.

STBA: Seniors…The Benevolent Angels: This is a breed superior to JTIs, they are the experienced ones at helL and as a superior race they take the initiative (seriously than required) of pulling JTIs out of darkness. They mention time and again that they are not demons and are thus approachable (I don’t understand this place is called hell, isn’t it?? Still I should better trust them after all I am just a JTI !!!!)

IIML or IIM helL as people call it lovingly is an institute of post graduation but however
Somebody has nicknamed it wrongly I guess ‘coz in this place called hell, I see either angels or humans but no devils or demons.
A peculiar thing I noticed this Sunday was that even students take attendance of students at this place and this is treated as a fairly serious matter, what I mean is STBAs arrange for sessions always marked mandatory to educate the JTIs about anything and everything, at these sessions they call out the names of JTIs who respond by saying ‘Yes Sir’ (usually) to mark the attendance. Here I would also like to appreciate the patience both species show (atleast at par at something) ‘coz it takes 15 mins minimum.
So this Sunday was the education day devoted to different houses of IIM angels commonly named as committees. The key feature is that a mortal like me had no choice of being an atheist.
The session started with promisingly small preachings by different godheads but as it proceeded it became fairly clear to me that my Sunday was screwed.
As I sat there I couldn’t stop thinking about the missionaries sent to civilize people, who would convert people by all means and thus civilize them. As my thoughts started to engulf me after the lunchtime, the scenario around me started to change; the room was transformed into a decrepit compound full of strangely clad tribal, people had a feather cap on their head, wore very colorful frock like dresses and had a bhala in their hands; while their were some strange looking beings perhaps from some other planet, they wore white shiny clothes and had a wand and had wings, a few of them were flying across the room reprimanding the tribal over etiquettes and one of them was trying to communicate with the tribal. I scared of the scene decided to flee and thus rushed to the door, but I was spotted and one of them rushed towards me, I instinctively closed my eyes and begged forgiveness.
Next I opened my eyes I was still in the same room, spread out on my chair and my friend was waking me up ‘coz we were not allowed to sleep too.
The session took 9 hours of my idle life and gave me life saving information about the angelic houses, I believe there is hope for me too and I can also become an angel in helL.
STBAs rock!!

Amen!!!