At the end of an era....

Part II: At IIM Lucknow

I came to Lucknow with a lot of plans and a very high expectation. I was excited to meet people here. My parents had accompanied and though we were much troubled with the harsh UP heat but they were proud to be here and see their daughter being a part of the IIMs.

The first week was good. Fell in love with my room, excited to see the balcony. The outer ring road, Saamanjasya, the faculty block, the pathway, Chanakya, Patanjali and the library with a good collection of contemporary authors in English fiction made me go all ga ga. This was the place and I was sure I would have a wonderful 2 years here.

So started my first week here and everything was going just perfect. Then started my interactions with people. And it was from this point that I came to face to face with reality. I met many people and expected all of them to be of high intellect (first myth) and rational (second one). Won't say much about the same, just that the people with whom I spoke to in the first few days were the ones with whom I din't speak in the whole year that followed!

The second phase was the rush of events that followed. I got nominated in ABS, and I found how others reacted to this news. The cut throat competition and the fight of getting into one of the committees was the next one. Interviews, tasks and more interviews followed and I found myself giving interviews for committee selection at 2 am in the night!

Then came the CV game! Game with high bets as they hold the key to a good summers....and so said all the seniors. Iterations after iterations.....evaluation and reevaluation. And in between all this, we had the rigorous classes, tyrant Manac subject and the prof, submissions, presentations and so many competitions. In between all this hustle no one realized the end of the first term. It seemed like a lifetime and the one week break was just not enuf and we found ourselves back to campus amidst all that we had run away from. The lifestyle in the first term which seemed so weird became a routine. CV game had a new twist now with the addition of the deadly HR questions. And before we even realized we started attending ppts and found ourselves infront of HR managers trying to babble those HR answers we had prepared! And so ended the much hyped and talked about summer process. Life took a relaxed pace for the time being and so came the time to rewind......

Its here that you realize that there are just 24 hrs in a day and it would have been much better if you could do without sleep....since the first is a fact u have to live with and second is the one u cant do without, you start making your choices....good marks in quiz vs a competition vs talking to ur parents on phone(after a long long gap) vs old friends vs new ones vs etc etc. You sacrifice one thing for the other weighing each possible option not knowing what u r doing and if its really right to make that choice and unknowingly either u started running after success blindly or screwing urself completely. Oh God! if I could only take one peep into future...where the choices I take now would lead me too. Thats one option God devoid us.........and so it is......here I am, not sure of the decisions I took, not knowing the person I am turning to, not having a clue to where I am leading to, just hoping it all makes sense in the long run.......right now I haven't have a clue my friend!

P.S. forgot to mention some of the cool stuff i did here.........cycling in the campus at 3 am in the night, getting wet in the rain, danced like crazy in the hostel induction party ;) and got associated with Bhavishya :)