"Survival Is Success"
- by Anuj Arora *
The zombie is back and has managed to climb up to the 2nd
semester. Yes guys, I managed to survive first semester usually referred to as
the "toughest 3 months of life" by the IIM-fraternity. You all must be wondering
what kind of horrid stories and description do I have now to reveal regarding
the life in IIM-A. Guys, this time it won't be that much about the miserable
life, assuming that to be there throughout. This time I will be covering the
better things of life, the people over here, i.e., GOD level students and
professors and other aspects of life.
To start with, yesterday was one of most memorable days in
IIM-A for me & loads of other people. One of our quite renowned alumni came to
meet us informally. He has a fan following barring country boundaries and it's
related to the passion of India.
Yes readers' you guessed it right, it is "Harsha Bhogle". Few
of you may be surprised to know that he is an IIM-A alumni, but that's the
reality. Adding to that, IIM-A is even more important to him since he found his
wife "Anita" here during college life. Talking to him made us realize that it is
really worth going through this life of misery, pain and daily fight for
survival. He said that and I quote him "Having survived this place, I was
confident of facing anything in life". This place makes you a fighter if you
are not. Even our professors tell us the same. For ex Eco God, Prof. Ravinder
Dholakia, well known in his field besides being consultant to the state govt. on
various issues, said, "Just surviving this place means you succeeded".
In this place you see the best of talent India has to offer
and a guy, who would've never dreamed to be among such a awesome talent, is
really bedazzled. At a place like this, you learn to accept your limitations and
like yourself for what you are. To give a few examples - One of our professor is
MIT alumni and he gave his thesis in 17 pages which otherwise people take
100-200 pages. Other professor is a gold medalist CA & was formerly Finance
Manager for "Rolls Royce" global operations to name a few.
Among students, there are people who had option of going to
MIT, Stanford and there is one whose girl friend is studying in MIT. Final year
students have started getting PPOs (pre-placement offers) from MNCs for foreign
placements.
Sometimes it feels good when we see that students from other
colleges come here to have a tour of our campus and library. To add to that, the
recent surveys of B-schools has really said it all and especially by Economic
Survey which has placed IIM-A as rank 45 across world, highest rank by any Asian
institute.
But besides that we see students who are so humble and
co-operating. A lot of people have a misconception of IIM grads being snobbish
kind; I would like to say they are not. You just have to meet them to believe
me.
That would be all for now, hoping this inside view would've
been of some use and interest to you, now I should take all this optimism away
and get back to reality. The point of views differ depending on whether you are
outside or inside the border.
Enjoy to maximum & keep fighting (not literally) in life.
This is a lesson you can learn without going through the grilling for it.
