Ramana relents :-D

For all those who have no idea what/who this first word in the title points to- No, I haven't spelt Ravana wrongly, it is R-A-M-A-N-A, although the feelings PGP participants at IIM-I harbor for him might be somewhat similar ;) FYI- Ramana is the Chair, PGP and that explains our abhorrence for this character..All the atrocities of PGP office unleashed upon us(the participants) are courtesy L.V. Ramana. (Its Diwali time, so Ravana kinda popped into my head when I spoke of Ramana).

Well, this time Ramana is in picture for somewhat positive reasons. After having disappointed the students(or participants to be  precise) with his heavy-handed denial of leaves, Ramana somehow got sensitized to the yearnings of our young hearts ;) Quite to the surprise of every single person, PGP office announced a 5-day break around Diwali, allowing people to go back and enjoy the time with family and friends. Although this might sound to be a very regular and expected move for any organization, it is not at all the case here; given it came from people of such sadist temperaments. Well, whatever the reasons might have been, the excitement and joy it endowed people with was unwitnessed in the past couple of months and the countdown started from the very day of announcement of leaves.

As I write this post, I am on 2nd day of my leave and the feeling is inexplicable. All those tensions that keep buzzing in our heads while in campus seem to have lost their existence. The incessant struggles that I am pitted to every single day have been comfortably left behind. Those flurry of submissions, assignments, pre-reads.. the daily hassles that surround me have all evaporated. Life seems to have taken a pause. I can sit back, enjoy what I find best in the culinary world, do what I enjoy the most, give time for things that score above rationality, logic or materialism. A weight seems to have been lifted off my mind and my heart seems to have taken the control. I can simply do what I want to, what I had been wanting to and what I always love to!

The time also complements the feeling so well, being that of festivities. Buzzing marketplaces, adorned buildings and traditional festive preparations. Being at home for Diwali was perhaps never so cherished. Having longed for it so hard, I can now better appreciate these bigs and smalls of the festival, and the enjoyment is unprecedented.

Not to debate that what awaits ahead of this break is even more atrocious with 5-6 hrs of classes everyday, accompanied by 3 quizzes and 1 presentation(thats what I know so far)-all in one week. This is what PGP office might consider as the compensation for giving us this break, but habituated now I am to such inhuman stunts of theirs. As I said, life has taken a pause and when it shall resume, the force with which it shall come upon us would be grossly intensified. It wont be easy, but it wont be impossible.

Right now, all those worries are off my mind and the sole thing I am focusing on is being at home and 'leveraging' it to the best ;-)

I am cheerful and will be so until I get back to the horrendous planet, Planet-I. Its a good time and lets enjoy it as such.

Best wishes for Diwali, (Ignore if you read it later :P )

-Ankita S.

Dont move!

Talking about challenges that are thrown to you, the worst probably come wrapped in nostalgia. Such moments make you vulnerable, you defenses go weak, your strength dwindles and more often than not, you break down over things that might not ordinarily budge you. 

Understandably, that is the biggest challenge that I, not unlike most other people here, have been facing for the past 20 days (or so). Considering what this place puts you to, the sole motivation to persevere and progress lies with the eventual relaxation that one can achieve after all the hard work. In our case, after all the rigor of exams et al in September, all that our hearts were longing for was a break! A break from this hectic life we had been living, a break from the incessant roll of assignments/classes we had been drudging through, a break to sit back and observe the fine things of life! 

Ha.. only when you think that something SHOULD be done(atleast on humane grounds) is when IIM pulverizes your expectations. No matter how demanding the term had been, no matter how drained we were after the exams, the administration would not let us any break! They have their academic reasons, which are supposedly working to our benefit but I don't know whether they simply feign to fail to understand its psychological impact on students or they are actually that numb! A small break of even 2-3 days could have rejuvenated students, revived their energies for the upcoming term but who cares to consider that.

I might sound pretty irked by what has been done and I graciously admit that. Desperate is what I would call I was to go home.Shattered! So disheartening, such massive plundering of hopes and expectations! At such moments, nostalgia mounts. The helplessness makes you so vulnerable, so susceptible to emotional outbursts. It again becomes a challenge to handle yourself. Getting butchered by the administration might have become a habit by now, with their unfailingly unrealistic schedules and workload; but managing oneself on a new front is a new challenge every time. You need to unearth your potential towards handling it, employ it and deal with the situation. Not to mention probably is the fact that you need some support, some guidance to help you sail through such times. Once you find it, it's an asset else life appears to be a liability [:P]

I told you, challenges is what this place is all about; at least for those who decipher the scenes behind the mechanistic picture. And learning I am to deal with one by one as they are thrown to my face.

P.S. - Apologies if you find the asset-liability joke unwarranted and incongruous :)

~Ankita!

The first!

After having craved for months to write something, I finally have sneaked some time to post a blog. One question that might prod many inquisitive minds is why I created a separate blog with IIMI in the title? Well, by no means is it an attempt to brag. This is just to highlight the step-up(or down?) in my life ever since I entered this place, to underline the fact that life here  deserves a separate account for itself, with the kinds of challenges and rewards it offers.

Moving on..

Its been three months now at IIM, Indore and surprisingly, it does not look so. With days and nights merging into one another, its hard to believe that its JUST been three months.You seem to have gone through so much, drudged so hard..it cannot be just three months! But it is. What has been so far was just one-sixth of all that this place has to offer. I cannot just imagine what I am have subjected myself to and why!

Challenges find you everywhere and so do they here. The interesting aspect is that they come in such varied forms and attack you on such unguarded fronts that you seem to stagger in your resolve. Talk about the academic pressure- highly engaging schedule with classes, assignments, quizzes topped with intimidating competition and consequent tussle for results take your sleep away, and they do that with a smirk. Added to that, the environment you experience, the people you interact with, the dynamics you witness-all  appear to have undergone a significant change from your just-past life. At times, it takes a psychological toll on you. Your belief, your resolve, your determination seems to be slipping away. You might get nostalgic, you might feel disillusioned, all that might fill your heart is despair. That is what this place teaches you to master. You have to get back! You need to rebuild your resolve. It becomes imperative to hold your belief, maintain that efficacy and fight back. You need to learn to manage yourself.

Challenges take many other forms and they find you at every step, no doubt. The essence remains the same throughout. One has to learn to manage oneself on all fronts. One gets to explore one's strengths and realize one's weaknesses. How one tackles these challenges is one's personal choice, one's individual rule of prioritizing. There are trade-offs and one has to learn to align them with one's goals. It might get frustrating but it teaches you a lot. As one might say, no life experience goes waste.

This was the essence of past three months at IIMI.

Looking forward to  more frequent and more detailed posts henceforth,

Signing off,

Ankita.