The Calm, The Storm & well, The Gossip !

The Calm
O week was soon over. Talen Nite done, Sports Final done, all other activities done. And our Section – B, was by FAR the one with the lowest aggregate score. Ah well, we said, “ There’s more to life !”

Anyways, now was a week of peace, relaxation & no pre-planned activities. It was time for Pre-Term courses.

There are 3 pre term courses – Accounts, Stats & Quant – all designed to
1. Get ppl up to speed on these topics if they ve forgotten any concepts
2. Teach ppl basic concepts in case they ve not encountered these subjects before
3. Get ppl into Study mode

These course were optional & I had opted to NOT take any of them (something that many ppl congratulated me for & were actually happy for me !)
So, this week, I SLEPT – almost 8-9 hours daily.. sometimes even 10 hours. Considering that there is a Tshirt sold here with the following tagline on it – “ I went to ISB and all I got was 4 hours of sleep”, this was substantial amount of sleep that I was getting.

More seriously, this was the week that I got to know many people. Till now most interaction was limited to a few sentences, exchanging & forgetting names, maybe recollecting faces. I had met ppl during meals, parties, fun activities and never got beyond a few sentences

1. What’s your name
2. Hmm, full name ?
3. Oh yeah – I ve seen you on google groups…
4. So, what SV ?
5. Oh cool, section ?
6. Anyways, catch you… u coming for the party tonight ??

Meanwhile, I would be giving out similar info at the same time. Lets say this was Mr. A. By the time I talk to Mr. E, I just remember the face of Mr A & maybe say hi to him at the party & pretend that I know his name ! im sure he would do the same.
I had just interacted a bit more with my section guys due to Talent Nite, so I knew their names properly! But this week – I got to know the people behind the names. And, that, I think is the most important takeaway that all of us will be getting this year. The people we meet & befriend, the relationships/bonds we form.

I also spent some time (finally) with my study group – went out for a fun dinner with them. These guys are going to be the ones I interact with the most over the next 6 months and I really wanted to get to know them, n get along with them.

Another set of people I went out with were my quad-mates – we went to a tiny little punjabi dhaba that served awesome food & then went for a movie. I guess that’s the max time I ve spent with them considering now we have different schedules n I don’t see more than 1 of them at a time & don’t go beyond saying, “hi, how was your day” ! But they are really cool people !

I went out into the city too a couple of times. The most fun was when 5 of us went out, had awesome Chaats at Ohris that reminded me of Mumbai ! and then, I looked around for Aam-ras at over 6 food outlets, but with no success. I mean – summer without aam-ras is just pointless ! but, rest assured, the search shall go on ! whenever I have the time.

Well, the week reached the weekend – and we had leadership development sessions from 9-7 on both days + readings to be done for the terms, so the weekend jus went by, though there was a party & a karaoke night + screenings of the IPL semi finals & Finals that we managed to squeeze in somewhere. I ve realized that I tend to do a lot more with my time here. I ve been playing & losing squash & badminton on a regular basis, but I feel im getting better. Its fun.

People around – faculty, alums etc keep scaring us about Term beginning saying that we wont know what hit us once term begins, that it ll be a flurry of continuous activity & you wont ve time for anything, that anything that you do over classes, projects & meals will eat into ur sleep time. Well, I say, we’ll cross the bridge when we some to it. 3000 people ve done it, and 580 shall do it this year. And I will be one of them. Amen !

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The Storm

Yesterday, the famed ISB infrastructure leaked water from all cracks & crevices.. There was a mini storm with heavy rains & very high speed winds that blew the furniture in the atrium all over the place & I know atleast 2 girla who while crossing the atrium were pushed sideways by the wind, even tho one of them was holding on to me ! All in all – it was awesome weather. I, for one, love the rains & felt like getting drenched. My laptop on my back stopped me.

This was a storm of nature, very different from the storm brewing on campus !
Term 1 had started. Lectures from 8 15 in the morning, tons of pre read (which yes, as the alums predicted – I ve been avoiding ), assignments, quizzes, tests and of course parties, club presentations, outings, etc.. etc & some sleep amidst it all.

Life is absolutely crazy here.

Studies – well, the quantum is not very much, its quite manageable – but im having trouble with eco & stats, but yeah – trying very hard to get comfy with them.
Parties – I dunno how to say this, but im tired of the number of parties. Last weekend, there were 3, this weekend, there were 2. I just go for a couple of hours and leave. I really see no point in spending more time. But maybe, its just me !

But, our section had an awesome party at Hard Rock and I ve had lots of wonderful dinners at places around – Haveli, Ohris, Little Italy, Wonton etc etc.

Assignments – I shall only talk about marketing here. Over 70% of my time apart from sleep was spent on marketing last week. It just doesn’t give you time for anything else. There was a case study that kept half the college awake at any point of time over 2 days. And at the end of it, I still find myself asking WHY ? The subject marketing is teaching me more about group & people management than about marketing. One ends up spending so much time with the study group, you get to know their peculiarities, working styles, likes, dislikes, irritants, quirks… I ve quite a good study group – I don’t agree with them on all things, but we manage to get by pretty well !

Also, I finally spent over half an hour – at a stretch – with my quad-mates. FINALLY ! we watched “Love, cash .. something” on Channel V. hahahah ! Quality Time, eh ? Chick, aren’t we ?

Talking about chicks, well – they r all married.

Here’s an actual conversation – I was party to it. Girl – A, Guy B & Me

Guy: dude, there are no single chicks on campus
Me: Yeah – they are all married
Guy: no one is cute
Me: Yeah, they are all married
Guy to girl: Can you do a survey of all available single chicks for me .. plz..
Me: No use dude.. the single ones – they too are married !

Another. Guy A & Guy B. (maybe one of them is me )

A: dude, the girl you were eyeing yesterday – she is married
B: (trying not to show any emotion): who ?
A: (says the name)
B: oh, is she. Hmm, doesn’t look like it
A: I know !! when I got to know, I was shocked too
B: but she doesn’t even wear her ring !
A: yeah, I checked out her FB profile, nothing mentioned there too
B: this is just unfair – its ok if u r married – atleast be open about it. you should let people know !
A: I know ! ! ! forget it.. the sad part is, all the others have boyfriends.

So, yes – there are tons of things here, but time is made for everything. Sleep is the only ting compromised upon, and for that – we have Thursdays !

Mid Terms ! Exams ! What, already ??

When the alums said, that the year would be a fast paced conveyor belt, we didn’t realize it’ll be this fast. Exams are on our head already. Suddenly I see so many people, including me, spending so much time in the LRC or in the confines of their quads / studios. Not that we are all very studious, but the fact is that, no one has studied anything till now & when people get back to studies after 3, 4, 5 years of last seeing a book over 100 pages, it takes time for the gyaan to sink in. The struggle will continue till Saturday next week & then after a day of partying, Term 1 part B will start wit exams in, wait for it, another 2 weeks !

Gossip Monger Corner (if this doesn’t make my blog famous, nothing will)

Ok, its been 2 weeks on campus. Before coming, all friends had told me abt how there’ll be many hok ups on campus n stuff. And, I was waiting for news to percolate – well – I have some now. I cannot reveal names & details n I really don’t know that much, but well – gotta create interest in the blog na !!
So, here goes – again, this is only what I ve heard – some might not be true, but im pretty sure its all true.. hehehe.. I ll substitute names with letters of alphabets & not disclose who is the guy & who is the girl.

1. X & Y were making of at one of the parties. X & Y have been seen together by all & sundry. Their stuff / belongings – books etc is mostly lying at each others places. They come to class together and leave together. Both are late together.

2. A & B have been seen together since almost beginning of term & apparently A had eyes on B from before ISB via FB. Well, it seems to ve worked out well for A, coz B sure seems smitten. But, wait – there’s a third spoke in the wheel – C ! C has eyes on B too & well, lets see where tht story goes. I ve heard B is playing for time n not making a decision. A sure has a huge lead.

3. P & Q were allegedly seen making out at one of the SVs. Now, I don’t understand why one would make out in public if everyone has rooms here, but you never know . I don’t know the status on P & Q, but the street says that Q is not the kinds that would take any such things seriously. But you never know. Well, here there is R too, who, allegedly again, has the hots for Q, but has been looking quite “lost” these days. Last seen – Q & R at an SV were P resides. P not seen there.

Well, that’s all… maybe I get more gossip & further updates, maybe I don’t. Next post will most definitely be after Mid Terms. So, ALL THE BEST GUYS !!!

P.S. - in the last 3 days, atleast 5 people doubted my being a CA, saying stuff that ranged from

" you can't be a CA"
" you dont look like a CA, chashme nahi hai"
" scope hi nahi hai .. you dont look like or seem like a CA"
" a person who is so verbose, cant be a CA"
" hahahahahahahaha"
" if you are a CA, howcome you just got 18 on the accounts quiz"

Well to all of you - i really dont care !!! :-)