Only when the Marketing of IT prof wished us good luck with our careers and ended the class, did it really hit me. It germinated from one simple though; a thought both liberating and nostalgic at the same time - that i will never again have a 8 AM class on mondays and tuesdays. Soon - by the end of this week - i will never again have classes. Full stop. No more worrying about the latest 'bunkometer' updates or surprise quizzes. I am trying hard not to think about class room sessions that corporates conduct. In any case, it will be no match for the ones here.
The truth, that my life at IIMB is coming to its own graceful halt, had been 'out there' for quite sometime. But it has so far been ruthlessly overshadowed by the approaching climax of life here on campus - the final placements. In a mad rush for bulleting my life within a one pager and trying to coax leadership and team abilities into text boxes, i had totally let the dying stages of life here slip past me. It is a totally different matter that Placements are perhaps the worst way to end your campus life. In that regard, undergrad colleges are much better. The only thing you are worried about in the final semester is extracting the maximum fun out of your campus before you leave it. Anyway, sitting there in the class, the realisation dawned and a sudden heaviness descended, which i determinedly attributed to me being asleep. In 3 more days all classes would be over. But the bigger truth was that in a little under 3 weeks my life at IIMB, classes or otherwise would cease to be the 'present' and transcend into the 'past' where i can only conjure up the images in my mind.
In a way, the classes coming to an end is an occasion to rejoice. Goodbye to boring lectures, irritating assignments, fraud reports, night outs for case submissions, project presentations and arbit CPs. To me classes at 8 AM is fraught with memories of watery and hot coffees grabbed at a rush, mouthful of morning breakfast stuffed in urgency and an uncomfortable chill that gave you fond memories of the warm bed you had just parted with. This is almost always where the memories end because once you enter the cozy confines of the class, you always end up sleeping. Its the 'going to class' part thats the most difficult especially when you are on the limits - as measured undisputably by the number of 'bunks' you have. Let me explain that,
There are three brands of students:
1. Impulse users - they use up all their legal bunks and end up attending all the remaining classes out of sheer necessity to avoid getting a D in the course,
2. Planned users - These guys would probably make the best managers, planning their bunks to perfection, making sure they have enought at the end and also making sure they use all their bunks and finally,
3. Thrifty users - These guys either use too much foresight and end up with unused bunks or they are just extremely focussed toward learning things that....whatever....
The problem for me was that inspite of trying my best to belong to the second category i always end up in the first. So if you were to walk into the campus after half a term is over and observe my behaviour pattern you would quite wrongly assume that I am a regular to classes. What you wouldnt know is that having bunked so many in the first half I....well, you get the point right? So, from that moment where you have just used up the last permissible bunk, you have to be on your toes. You just cant afford not to wake up for an 8 AM class. Life is really screwed up then!
But i would also be saying goodbye to some stimulating debates, enthralling lectures ranging from the outright humourous to the brilliantly insightful, some amazing professors and to the general concept of someone walking into a room hoping to impart knowledge to 50 pairs of appraising eyes and you being one pair in it. Thinking back, i can literally hand count the Professors i really admired and respected and considered it a crime to even bunk whose classes and standing tall among them is Prof. Ravi Anshuman. He had his own inimitable style: A measured voice with an excellent accent and an amazing way of building the concepts for you right in front of your eyes. I hated fin but I loved Corporate Finance thanks to him. Then comes the greatest performer on class i have ever seen: Ramachandran J. He thrived on challenging, intimidating and enthralling his audience to achieve the best. I would think that there was no better way to learn strategy. He knew his audience like he knew himself. He knew what your CG was, where you were going for summers, what you have scored in subjects before this etc. Its a queasy experience sitting in a class where the professor knew everything about you. I still remember in one the classes, we were analyzing Dell case, he turned to me and said, "So Mr. Tyagarajan, you are a computer science graduate, what do you think is the reason for Dell's success". A pretty inncuous question, but you had to be there to understand the gravity of it. When RamC(thats what we call him) asks you for an opinion, you just dont give it. Its like stripping off and walking on the road. You'd rather let him take the honours although you know that he is going to tear you apart no matter what. If there is one academic experience worth coming to IIMB for, it is RamC's class. Of course, its a different matter that he is one of the top consultants in the country and companies coming for recruitment go to him for advice. There were a few other professors too, who in their own way had a knack of imparting knowledge or making you think. Well, what can i say?
Thank you & Au Revoir.
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