Finding Balance
Life at IIM Indore
It has been one and half months that I’m struggling to find balance at IIM-Indore. Joining a B-School to pursue MBA had always been in my check list, particularly because of the fact that we don’t have college in CA. I am lucky enough that I got to be a part of this college, which we proudly call as “Planet-I”. We have been hearing of this term since we got the welcome mail, post acceptance of offer. However, now we understand why this is called a Planet, because at least for first few months, this is the only habitual space in the entire galaxy that we can think of residing in. I had been thinking to write this post when I was about to leave my home to be a part of this 2 years journey, then after 15 days of joining and then another 15 days, but finally it is today that I am able to do it.
So, what all we have been served in the last 1.5 months? Beginning with a warm welcome by sleepless nights to walking on fire, from simulation of clubs/committee selections to the actual ones, from sharing primers to competing with fellow students in respective domains almost daily, from struggle for attendance to skipping breakfasts, from individual tasks to group assignments, from quizzes to mid-terms, from being excited about hearing the word “fest” to becoming irritated with the term “pre-process”, from “smart casuals” to “business casuals”, from resume to NPAD, from plagiarism to paraphrasing, from India to Sri Lanka (Pataal-lok), we have been challenged almost every hour. The journey seems to be like an exhausting “uphill” journey, not just figuratively but literally.
Though the path seems arduous to almost all of us, but the interesting part is I haven’t come across even a single sad face over this time. Is it because we have lost our emotional sense? Or have we become machines? Or we Indians can just accept anything and everything? Or the answer is hidden somewhere in the journey itself? Let’s take a ride to our journey again, but little differently this time. DJ parties after sleepless nights, overcoming fear by walking on fire, sense of achievement by getting to be a part of clubs/committees/fests, marathon to classroom for punch in- beating our personal best every day, mid-session snacks to night mess, Indore rains, exquisite campus, finding friends through group tasks, relative marking hoping “all will be well” as “nobody is well”, Saturday movie plans (only plans but exciting enough), “Adda par Adda”, compact sleeps, last minute submissions, excitement on getting selected, or motivation on getting rejected, seniors turning into friends, uphill ride becoming trekking/gym experience. All of this has made our journey not just simpler but stimulating.
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But, is this enough? Isn’t college supposed to transform our personality? Let me try to answer that. We are challenging and pushing our limits daily, suddenly the word “sacrosanct” doesn’t scare us the way it used to, unexpectedly the minimum and optimum hours of sleep have come in sync, time column has been added in our “To-Do”, every couple of days we are evaluating ourselves, what is working for us and what needs improvement/change. I don’t know whether this is personality transformation but this is definitely a step towards it.
P.S. The journey would not have been this exciting had I not met MY FRIENDS, who can bear me, my irritating habits, lame jokes, anger, frustration, gyaan/fundas and what not.
P.P.S. I would be writing another post soon, this time the detailed one, sharing the best and worst of the experiences in last 1.5 months.
If It doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you!
