One Week Description of IIM-K

Tarantula's message: Kolya, after my repeated requests and that of his friends, has agreed to detail a description of one week at IIM-K. Let us start it right now: Saturday 00:00 am. (Pic: Sleeping in class :D   )

Saturday 0000 hrs

I am sitting on the computer, basically waiting for my Investment Bank of Kozhikode (IBOK :) ) teammates to complete their reports and send them over to me to collate. In the meantime, I am playing quiz on Zamorin (our multi-utility software) and listening to music, while also re-arranging my disarrayed room...

By the way, getting inspired from some events that have happened in my life, I have decided to reorganize my life this week. And that is why I am putting all this down here. Let us see how it works out.

Saturday 0305 hrs

Yes, that is what I thought... That I 'd sleep at 0200 hours maximum... But unfortunately when you are working as a team where nobody wants to work, you invariably get delayed... Hope to get up early tomorrow to go to gym... Still the IBOK work is not completed... Tomorrow 4 major tasks-marketing case study (to be discussed day after), study for test, prepare for Konsult presentation on Financial Consulting (a voluntary task which I took up) and summers preparation interview with seniors at night... Hope all this passes off well... Good night folks...

Sunday 1115 hrs

Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa... Late as usual...

This was my reaction when I saw it was 0840 hours when I got up. Unfortunately these days, I can't hear the alarm, despite setting it more than 10 times. Maybe it is because of accumulation of sleep that one has to face when one enters an IIM. Whatever... My plan was to get up at 0730, do with the morning chores by 0750, go to gym till 0910, get finished with the breakfast by 1000, and bath by 1015, and then work on my IBOK report. Whoa... Such planning!!

But here I am at 1115, with the bath still left, and the IBOK report untouched. Going one hour late... Let's see how the day turns out... Hoping to finish IBOK by 1330 now.

Sunday 1445 hrs

"Winners are not those who follow deadlines; winners are those whom deadlines follow."

And for once, I finished a task way ahead of the deadline I set for myself. I finished with the IBOK task at 1240 hrs and had a nice bath. Listened to some songs from "Bachna Ae Haseeno". Just downloaded.. Our IP messenger always keeps spewing more movies, songs, pics.... The list goes on... 

Anyways, coming back to the point, I started studying for marketing. But it was boring as usual, so I went in for lunch at 1400 hrs. Have just returned. Now I hope to finish off this marketing case by 1700 hrs. Hoping to be a winner this time too... Rock on... :)

Monday 0405 hrs

The vicissitudes of life in an IIM... When you think you are going absolutely right, a sudden boulder disrupts your life and makes your locus of control external. 

Sorry laymen for using such harsh language... After suffering a lot of hardships, the poet's only weapon begins to write its phantasmagoric saga... 

Last time I wrote in the afternoon, it was such a peaceful afternoon. I was reading the marketing chapter to which the case to be presented tomorrow is related. The cool room, the rocking of songs in the background, ideal situation for sleep... But after sleeping for about 20 minutes, I got up and began reading again... Till 0430 I read... And then, all my deadlines were about to change...

Suddenly my IBOK mentor arose from hibernation... A ping on gtalk and I was off to his room, thinking how to finish off the work he will be giving me in one hour...

And here I am, writing this post, having spent 11 hours and 30 minutes (not entirely of course... We sometimes go for food also... Especially on days when we have had a good exercise), I am present before you... My life is in a disarray... And will be for two days considering the amount of work I am supposed to do in the following two days... Finish off the remaining marketing case study and the corresponding chapter (my groupmates have done it... But for CP (or DCP - Desperate Class Participation), I will need to do it)... Tomorrow I am also giving a presentation on Financial Consulting as a volunteer of Konsult, our consulting interest group (We have lots of groups here indeed...)... That will easily take up 2-3 hours of preparation... And QM test on tuesday with not a single word still read....

So let us try to put my schedule for tomorrow and day after in perspective... Tomorrow I hope to get up at 0700 (which of course I can not unless some beauty queen wakes me up), go to gym, have a good breakfast and go to class... 3 classes till 1330 (including the marketing case study, which I will prepare in the class only now)... Then a break from 1330 to 1515 when I will do the assignment of QM to be submitted tomorrow itself... Then QM classes from 1515 to 1800... Then preparation for Financial consulting... And dinner... Night 2115 will have the presentation... Will try to attend the session on "How to write a white paper" from 2215... And then at night will study QM... And tuesday till I write the test in the afternoon at 1430 hrs, I will be studying QM...

Unless the vicissitudes of life in an IIM disrupt my life again...

Monday 1430 hrs

For some reason, the day has passed off well till now... Got off at 0900 hrs despite my premise that I'd wake up if a beautiful young girl asks me to wake up... Well, she did, but then sleep is at a premium here... And when I am in sleep, I don't realize anything... Last week, my hand whacked the mobile in sleep and it went flying to the door, only for me to wake up and realize that my cell was not on the bed... Anyways, I reached the class somewhat late (0920 hrs, though that is not allowed here, I could easily have been thrown out of the class, but probably, Sir was in a better mood)... Passed off the day peacefully.. Studied the marketing case study in the second class (though that does not mean I didn't pay attention to what Sir was saying)... Though didn't do CP (or rather DCP... Desperate Class Participation) in Marketing class, yet having read through the case was sufficient to get a good understanding, and Sir was explaining well today...

Completed QM assignment after class (don't ask how)... And now am going to a 20 minutes sleep before the QM class starts... In the evening, I have a presentation, then a session on how to make a white paper, and tomorrow, the big one... A QM Quiz...

Hoping for the best...

Tuesday 0145 hrs

Ha... And i slept after that for one hour, missing the first QM class (thanks to GOD there was no attendance today)... And once I reached there, got the bad news that I had scored only 6.5 marks out of 30 in a test taken way back (I had expected 15 :(   )... Anyways, that would increase to 9.5 since there was a mistake, but this is too poor... (One bad day takes all your honours away)..... Anyways, I have had a lot of bad days in exams and I hope the results don't come out at all... After the class got over at 1800 hrs, I went to NC where I had a huge glass of Bournvita milk (Tan ki shakti, man ki shakti)... 

And went to my room at 1830... Started preparing for the presentation, but remembered suddenly that Bachna Ae Haseeno has been shared on Zamorin... Had a toss on whether to go through it or not (We scan through Hindi movies.. They are too slow compared to our lives)... 

Scanned through it in half an hour (Yaar, why am I not born a Kapoor!!! Kissing three hot chicks in one movie is too much :(  He has gone further than a Hashmi).... Then suddenly remembered that I had a presentation to make..Started studying again, one hour left, then half an hour left, I knew what I had to present but did not remember it... Went for dinner, took a print-out of the things I had to say in the presentation, gave the presentation (and thankfully, it was good)... Then waited for another session on "How to make a white paper"

2300 hrs, I was free... Now we have a test of QM tomorrow... Open book, so even more conceptual, it will require serious studying... And I have my birthday coming up at 0000 hrs... :)

So went to my room, changed into the dirtiest and smallest clothes I could manage (They were all going to get even more dirty in my birthday celebrations)... Tried studying QM but of no use... Eventually reached NC at 0000 hrs, where the public was ready to kick me (Thankfully the crowd was not as huge as was expected, was this because of the test??)... And then got kicked and was poured on with milk, water, coke, and I do not know what else... 

0030 hrs Came back, had a bath, and then again while I was leaving, my hostelmates caught me and I was again beaten up... Still managed to reach some friends, and we had a nice icecream celebration (I can't eat cake here, no eggless cakes available for vegetarians :( So an icecream party)... Then did some bakar with them, and came back...

Now I am debating whether to start studying QM or sleep... Of course no chance of sleeping now... For the entire night in fact...

Cheers... Happy birthday to me... Or rather, a birthnight in celebration, not my birthday; but of  QM

Wednesday 0320 hrs

Sorry folks... Couldn't write anything before this... Was busy the entire day...

Ok, what happened after I went away last night was that till 0400 hrs, I was doing a lot of time-pass on the internet and IP and Zamorin (Well we have all the means for that, don't we?)... At 0400 hrs, I had a chat with a friend here, to whom I expressed an inclination to study... I asked him to explain some stuff to me... He asked me to go over to his room... I went there, and tried to understand the gibber he threw at me for one hour, then having lost the battle, went to the NC to eat maggi (ha ha... 0515 in the morning), and while it was being prepared, I tried to study.. And guess what... I was understanding stuff... Then ate maggi, went back to my room, and still tried to study but then fell asleep at 0600 hrs (in the morning, u'd say)..

Ok.. let's start from the morning when I again got up late (@0900 hrs) and rushed to class... The MIS presentations were going on and I got a good opportunity to study QM, but sleep is a luxury and MIS is a luxurious session... After that, I don't know when I got up... Probably got up directly when OB sir came in for the third session (No idea that the Microeconomics madam came, taught and went away... She came, she saw, but didn't conquer :) ).... Again fell asleep till sir announced that this was his last class and wished us best of luck for the course (Yeah, our course got finished one month before the exams are due to start...)

After that, (1330 hrs) I decided to skip lunch to come over to study at my room, but unfortunately, got caught up with a former student of mine (a beautiful gal by the way :) )... and some more people... Then realized that I had a test, and with 20 minutes to go, started preparing for the test...

Of course, the test was a big debacle... Which left me quite depressed... Had food in the NC... And some guys from AC Nielsen had come for a survey on our perception of various companies... Got caught up in there for half an hour... 

Eventually, the Managerial Communications session started off at 1645 hrs... And I dozed off again.. (Wondering how much I can sleep!!).. I don't want to repeat the story... Cut to 2100 hrs, when we were finished with all 6 sessions scheduled for the day...

Wow... what a way to celebrate a birthday... 10 hours in class... 6 sessions and 1 test... And when you come out, a marketing case study stares you in the face.. And that is what occupied me till this time... though I went to the NC in the middle for some tomato soup... And did some chatting with some of my friends from college and school... 

Well, now I hope I get up at 7 in the morning to go to gym... Tomorrow is supposed to be a chill day... Not much work except the marketing case study... But who knows?? Remember? The vicissitudes... :)

Wednesday 2215 hrs

Today was my sleeping day... Of course, the plan was to get up for the gym at 0700.. But who knew that I would not be waking up till 1040 despite having a sleep broken by the phone (twice and that too at 0830 when I was supposed to wake up)... The alarm (10 times every day it tries to break my sleep... Unfortunately it is never successful; exceptions notwithstanding)... One classmate, my neighbour Nitin who wakes me up every day in the hope that I would wake up... Only to find me sleeping half an hour later... 

Anyways, I was bamboozled when I saw it was 1040... which meant not only had I missed the accounting class but was late for communications class as well... And just when I was about to lock my room, Nitin came from behind and said, why are you running? I said I have already missed the accounts class and am going to miss the MC class too... He said, "Relax, the accounting class was cancelled." Instances like this make me believe in fate (and GOD... but let's keep Him out of this discussion)... Then we went to the MC class, where after so many days, I really saw the two presentations without sleeping... And for the first time, I enjoyed the marketing class today... Not only was I prepared today but our Sir was in a much better mood than usual... 

After that, we had our lunch in the afternoon, and then, after some 5 days, I saw the face of the TT room... :) Played TT for two hours (now who says IIM guys only study??).. And in fact, I was asked to come for cricket in the evening also, but because of tiredness after playing TT, I went to my room, checked mails and all, and slept...

And slept till at 1820 hrs, my neighbour in class, Sanket called me up... I got up in a situation similar to that in the morning (We had an MC class - the second one today - at 1815 hrs).... And I rushed to the class... Once again listened to both the sessions today... And for the first time in so many days, I did a DCP (desperate class participation)... Feels so good... :)

Then I had my food, and now I am thinking of studying something (was listening to songs since dinner)... But as usual, mann nahi ho raha... Let's see... If I have a good movie, I will watch it now I guess...

Thursday 1919 hrs

Last night, when I left you, I watched half a movie... Then went to an E-cell meet at 0000 hrs (mostly in IIMK, that means 23:59:59 but people like me don't follow :D Seniors will kill me if they read this... They brainwashed most of us into believing this in the first week)... But the meet was over by the time I reached (that's what I heard later... never heard of such a small meet)... Anyways, then I went to the NC... A guy's birthday was being celebrated... And I joined in... No I didn't kick too much... I was simply lifting him up for other people to kick... :) ... After sometime, another guy (he looks like a gorilla in the body of Amjad Khan....) who is the foremost in D section in beating people up (of course, no one can retaliate against him alone), all got together and gave him his stuff back (I don't think it must have made much of a difference to him, he got a lot of sponge on his backside... :D)... And one guy from our class (who is always seen with the girls of D class only) was picked up (probably because of the frustration D section guys are facing because of him) and beaten... And we joined in here too :)... Behti Ganga me hum aur hamare class ke padosi jinhe hum Adi Manus bolte hain, hath dho hi lete hain... And one of that guy's 'girls' came and poured some Coke over his head... This made him absolutely pissed off... He went running after her with a cup of tea in his hands.... We got into the active observer's act and told him that you couldn't pour hot tea over her head... I offered him my cold Bournvita... We didn't believe he could actually spill it over her but eventually he did as the girl almost ran away... Now that's a sight you don't often see in IIM-K: a girl showered with Bournvita :) :) :)

I ran away after that... And there are rumours that the girl is still searching for me for offering that guy the Bournvita... Of course, after seeing her kick him so much, I am not falling into her hands :D ... 

Anyways, after that, we went off to A hostel for gyaan sessions for summers... One of our sincere classmates had prepared some stuff which he shared with the hostelmates... See, learning and fun go together in IIM-K... And then, somebody realized that the birthday boy has not been beaten up in hostel... Poor he... The seniors were called for the session... And it makes every hair on my body stand when I remember the butt-kicking he received.. Once again, I obliged in picking him up (I don't hit people... I facilitate the process...)... And eventually, more people got picked up for different reasons... And yours truly was one of them for having his birthday two days back :(

Then I came back and slept... And today was a roller-coaster ride... Once again I did not get up for gym but I did some exercise today which made me feel good... Today was MIS last session... And some things happened which I cannot describe :) Some internal folklore of IIMK which should remain...

Anyways, we had only two sessions, so after that, we went to see our MIS marks... Then I had some work that always gets left out (buying some notebooks and stuff), which I finally completed today... And then I again came to my room and listened to songs... (No study today).. Then went for MC class... And played carrom for half an hour after that... BTW we received our Microeconomics marks in between... Horrible.... I shouldn't describe such things I guess.. 

Anyways, it has been fun since two days... No real studying... So I guess I will be studying now... Ciao folks...

Saturday 0119 hrs

Ha ha ha.... Studying now... Right... Sometimes, I look back at what things I decide for myself and then turn back on it... If I try to do sampling of this random variable and take out the relative frequency of... Ohh.. Sorry folks. QM getting onto my head...

Anyways, I did a lot of time-wastage after I wrote the last sentence down last time, went to have dinner (which is getting unbearable now... Not because the food is bad, but because eating the same kind of food daily causes inertia for taste... And taste does not like inertia at all... It likes change.. Like life... Am I getting too philosophical now??) and then came back to my room to study for the marketing case study. And fell asleep for an hour. Studies are becoming catalysts for sleep these days. (You might have seen the pic above.)

When I woke up after an hour, I realized I had only 10 minutes before our group meets to solve the case. I messaged them that I would not be coming, but would be solving the question assigned to me in my room itself and send it to them... I was reading the case like in exams... Dozing off and getting up after 5 minutes, reading 2-3 lines and dozing off again.. :)

Ultimately I read the case and realized that solving the question would be extremely easy but would require some data, on which my group was working... Anyways it was 2330 and I had an E-cell volunteers meet at 0000 hrs... So I went to the library, where these people were absolutely raping the data... err.... working furiously on the data... And I joined them.... And having got bored soon... So I went off for the volunteers meet where no one turned up (The bane of a B-school... No one is willing to work unless there is a senior involved... Only a few sincere guys like yours truly get screwed in the process) I went back to the marketing case study, where people were already starting dispersing to work on their questions (Actually we solve the case study like this... Generally, to facilitate the solution of any case study, some questions are given at the end so that the students focus on those aspects of the case.. And we divide each aspect amongst us so that it becomes easier to solve the case... Advantages of team work.. whatsay??)... They were going to upload the data that they had come up with on the common folder on the server (Another nice thing about an IIM... You share a lot of knowledge with peers through various mediums).. So I went with a group-mate Sam to the NC.. Had some food... And then returned to our rooms..

Then the big time-wastage phase started... I had come back to my room at about 0115 hrs... But till 0230 hrs, I was wasting time on our IP messenger (the messenger used for internal messaging between all students of IIMK... A lot of spam is created everyday on that since people generally multicast things for everyone who is online... Pro: We get very nice songs, movies, news, information, etc. from these multicasts.. Cons: If something is not important for you, like some discussion going on, you can get very irritated with windows popping up every now and then... Yesterday it was a bunch of juniors like I who were creating the spam...) 

After 0230, it took me 10 minutes to solve the case, and send it to my groupmate who was collating the questions (Unfortunately I forgot to attach the file :( which I came to know about only in the morning and I quickly rectified my mistake... And that groupmate of mine was awake till 0430 hrs waiting for my file... Poor he... Not a real problem... He slept in class instead of that)...

Finally I slept... And eventually a day came when I woke up early in the morning (if 0720 can be considered early enough) and went to the gym... Life is so good when you exercise in the morning... Had some nice classes.... Not that I did not sleep in any class, but paid some attention and did some DCP :D

In the afternoon, I came to my room and thought of studying... Just lied down on the bed... And woke up after 2 hours... After exercising, sleep does become necessary... Which is why most people do not do hardcore exercising in most B-schools... I am a hardcore exerciser (whenever I do)... Never mind... Didn't have much work to do anyways...

Woke up and studied for an hour... Then went to NC for my evening snack of Paneer Paratha (yummy) and Bournvita... Came back, did some study again, did some exercise, and then went to the grand dinner that was organized today...

IIMK was born today 12 years ago...

We had a gala feast... And I ate a lot... Awesome food today... :D

After that, I went to another group (We generally work in groups here..) for preparing another presentation we are supposed to deliver tomorrow... Attended a session of AbaKus (our systems interest group..).. And then went to play Carrom and TT.... And away went my precious 2 hours...

Then came back to my room and prepared the slide on the presentation we have to deliver tomorrow (My part I did...) Now our group is getting together in the NC to collate the presentation and decide on who will speak what...

However, today's day was quite productive... Exercise, study, sports, great food... I had a blast today... Thank you, My Lord...

Last day of this description today... :D

Saturday 0000 hrs

And I went back to the NC last night to find one of my group partners, who said that we all were meeting in his room. Now his room is very strategically located :) just near the TT and Carrom room... Ohh... Then how can I help preparing the presentation? I and one other groupmate went away to play carrom... While others collated the PPT. And at 0315, I came back to my room and slept..

In the morning, it was my turn to slog it out... You see I had the job of making the PPT worth presenting (actually I worked a lot on making good reports in IBOK, so I told them I'd do it)... Got up at 0830; so, had to give the gym a miss today (really?).. Slogged on the report till 1015... Ahh... I didn't mention what we were presenting in class: Colour-changing urinals :D :D :D

Eventually made to the class right on time at 1045 hrs (Actually I practice the JIT philosophy-just in time... I might be late, but I can never be before time :)... ) Had a nice presentation where both the groups presenting this topic were making fun of each other's presentations :) ... After that, it was pretty much a boring day... Came back to room, did a bit of exercise... Went for food... Got the bank loan today (Thank GOD, now I have been under debt for so many days.. Now that money will need to be debited to my creditors accounts :D... Or is it the other way round?? ) Got OB marks... Don't ask... Then came back to the room with full intent of studying hard the whole day and fell asleep within five minutes... And got up only at the time of the second session of MC... Had two boring presentations... Then went to TT room again (Why do I waste time when I don't have it??)... Played for two hours.. Went to gym... (Where I saw once again Liverpool coming out of the dead to beat Middlesborough... And my preferred team Arsenal playing as badly as never against Fulham... Of course, they went on to lose the match..) Had food in NC where some people of our class were creating havoc with their quawwalis... Then came back to my room to find my neighbour and another classmate sharing their company experiences... I sat down like I had no work.. And then, a call came which forced me out of the room... Then into my room... I saw my ever-on appy (I don't call it lappy... it is much more than that.. Apple rocks... Nazar na lag jaye..) lying alone... couldn't bear it... So started writing this down.. 

We are pretty much finished with the description of my one-week@IIMK. There are some things which I have not mentioned because a layman might not understand it. There are some things which I have not mentioned here because I do not want to. There are some things which I have not mentioned here because some people might not like it. Other than that, this pretty much describes the typical life here... It is not always chill, sometimes there is a lot of work; but even in those times, there is a lot of fun... The spirit of the people is always high here... Except in class of course... 

There are quite a few things which I have learnt even while recording this description... About myself and about the college and the people here... Having never written anything like a diary, I now realize why people do maintain diaries... That does not mean that I will continue this practice because frankly, it takes quite a bit of time... And that is why I sit only once a day to describe what happened... But it is worth doing if you have 20-25 minutes to spare each day...

Unfortunately, we have everything but time at IIM-K...

Having read through the entire description, I feel it is somewhat boring to read daily life sequences (maybe that's why everything we see in movies is so heroic... Even a protagonist combing his hair is heroic :) )... But then, I wanted to describe everyday life here and not the story of a Hogwarts here... So please forgive me for that...

Cheers all... See you folks later with something even more interesting...