The rays of the rising sun reflect off the water,
and the lotuses on the Bhawan's lake open up their pink petals to collect
liquid gold. A white bird glides above the water. The picture of tranquility.
Over the SPJIMR campus - the Dawn just broke.
In buildings #26 & #29 - All HELL just broke.
It's
8:00 am.
A hundred and eight alarms go off - Ghetto
Sirens in an air attack.
Instantaneously, deathly drowsy but deadly
accurate hands hit snooze like a guided missile.
1. Sleep, 2. Good Grades, 3. Social
Life..."pick two, welcome to college!”
Manage all three? - Welcome to PGPM.
Class begins in an hour at 9, that’s fixed.
What time do people leave bed?
That’s a function of individual risk appetite.
Yet the uncles from 7:30, the men from 8 a.m.
and the studs from 8:45 all acknowledge the morning alike when the communal
Jukebox of the Hostel declares it.
Dudes with speakers in their rooms belt out hits to which the hostel hums
while making themselves presentable for college. Nothing illustrates the First mover's advantage
better than waiting on occupied shower cubicles. Fortunately or unfortunately
the Microeconomic Law of diminishing marginal-utility doesn’t apply here. Optimum
resource utilization is practiced while sharing the full length mirrors and collaboration
happens when the ‘sincere ones’ give a 2 minute download to the ‘drifters’ on a
2 hour class pre-read.
Mornings in the Hostel are busy - but in a good way. Everybody's on
their own path but we're still on the same train. Comradeship camaraderie.
About Ten minutes to nine:
A mass
exodus is in progress, but between the hostel and the lecture-theatres lies a
key strategic decision.
It’s
called breakfast- now or after first class.
The
key parameters of - # of consumers, staff serving efficiency a.k.a "bhaiya
jaldi karo" index and time remaining to class are analyzed.
Yet the Heuristic developed over ten PGPM years
still stands good-
Be
'Just-in-Time' for breakfast or else practice 'lean-management' till after the
first lec.
When mostly classes and rarely enthusiasm gets over by late afternoon or
evening, participants return in hordes, yet the hostel goes deadly silent. It's
time for mass hostel hibernation a.k.a Power naps. Don't be fooled by the
silence though, it's only the lull before the storm.
Everyone's charging up for the night - the
liveliest time of existence at campus.
One invariably wakes up by shouts and shout-outs happening outside. Depending
on the decibel intensity, these could be one of three things –
Sound #1:
If it sounds like a fight that sounds
extremely friendly, food has been found!! , someone got sweets/snacks/anything
from home - RUSH!! Away from home, the only standard remaining is ‘edible’.
Sound #2:
Large bouts of laughter, High Fives.
Look for this room and get ready for some
solid entertainment. Folks are on someone's case - a.k.a Lagao-ing sessions. These
are generally punctuated by punchlines in a single wicked voice followed by
howling laughter.
In
the midst of all this, academic group messages have already started floating
around - meeting times are being decided. Tasks are being delegated. Classic
divide and conquer.
Dinner time doubles up as a socialization opportunity, where all the animals
of the jungle meet at the waterhole. On some table there's a hot debate
regarding India's macroeconomic policies, on another an admiration club for a
professor's class while guys on yet another table are discussing the next Movie
screening of the cine-phile club. Amongst all this, folks from the party
committee are surveying around gathering consensus for the next lounge PGPM's
gonna crash.
After rounds of post dinner walks a
nd
discussions have ended, folks get to business on submissions due the next day. Seated
in huddles in the garden, the mess and hostel common areas everyone glowing in
the soft light halos of their laptops.
Business
plans are being made, debt equity ratios being decided, and new positioning and
segmentation approaches explored.
It's around midnight, but the activity around hardly makes it seem so- the
efficient humming of clockwork, ideas being born over a chai session here,
a round of coke there.
Suddenly a loud shriek pierces
through the cool night.
That’s Sound #3.
Loud ear shattering Shrieks and sounds of a deadly chase.
It's a birthday!! The only time to run away from friends.
For
this is a time when brotherly love knows no bounds and spills over in ample
measure in the form of birthday bumps being lavished over the lucky guy.
Just when things get wild and people begin to shout - "THIS IS
SPARTA!!!!" - The birthday-bashers committee presents the cake, the theme
of peaceful celebration is restored. Phew!
So
much adrenaline in the air already, arm wrestling matches break-out.
Yes, yes we have women's doubles as well.
A welcome break from work, people start to reminisce the last room party.
Weekends are a bit more relaxed and the room parties are to die for. There are
those who play instruments and then there are those who invent them. Music
flows from Chairs desks even the trash can.
Doesn't take long however before duty calls
again and participants return to their huddles to finish work and retire for
the day.
It's
after 2 am now:
A
loud resounding “YES!!” is heard, in the
background HIGH-FIVE claps - the first groups to submit all deliverables for
the day.
Everywhere you look reviews are in
progress, and fingers clicking away relentlessly at the laptop keys.
Birds begin chatter in the background, the
dawn is near.
Late nights and early mornings...Life of a
PGPM-er.
Having completed tasks for the day, you
head back to your room, a little chat with the roomie who you only see mostly
before you end the day. A small discussion leads to the realization of the
tremendous value that’s been added in the past 24 hours.
We're all living maximum lives, the realization is powerful, and gets
you charged up and looking forward to the next day.
CAUTION: This life is highly addictive. Use in moderation. May be that’s
why, It’s a one year program.
PGPM. 1 LIFE. 1 DECISION.
1 YEAR.
~Aryak Singh, PGPM 1013 Marketing
