"B-School Diary : Snapshots from IIMB"
- by Prasar Sharma*
The Story so Far.....
Dear Diary,
This is a weird place. I came here so that I could be a rich
and successful man when I got out of here. At least, be on the way. But, the
question that now comes to my mind -as I write this at 5 in the morning, well
beyond my normal sleeping time of 4:00 am -is this - Now that I am here� how do
I manage to get out? Hmm�. gives rise to an interesting thought: " To manage or
not to manage" is the question that most of us are already asking ourselves.
There is this very sick PJ about being at IIMB (or whichever "top 10 B School"
you are at). When you get through, you are on top of the world - you' re special
- a winner. But, when you actually get here, you realize that everyone else also
got through. Most people end up wringing their noses or scratching their heads
when they hear this. But out here, you realize that it is you that is the sick
PJ. Not what you said.
Make no mistake. This is a great place to be. The facilities
are great. The Profs are amazing. That is what our seniors say. To me this is no
short of hell. One-way ticket it seems to me. Sample this. I get up at 8 in the
morning. Go to class without breakfast. Have lunch at 12:30 and then spend most
of the afternoon sleeping. Study in the evening. Break for dinner at 8. At 9 it
is back to the books. And sleep at 4 in the morning. And that is my regular
schedule. The culprit as every IIM wallah knows is RG.
As soon as you enter the hallowed portals of an IIM, the
first piece of jargon that you are introduced is RG - Relative Grading. Which in
simple English means that you could have scored 90%, but the grade you get
depends on how many people are in front of you. Imagine a situation where you
got a B with a 90, just because half the class got more than you! You realize
pretty soon that people are not telling you the truth about what they did. And
though not widespread, they are giving you wrong answers to questions to make
sure you get that one mark less.
Isn't this a very depressing picture? Is this what you never
expected could be happening at an IIM? Unfortunately it all does. But, that is
just to tell you people with stars and management dreams in your eyes that it is
tough. I just wanted to make sure that when you stepped into an IIM, you would
know what to expect. Don't be blissful. We all thought that clearing the CAT was
the hard part. We were corrected in about 3 days after coming here.
But, then a lot of it is also in perception. I came here from
REC Surat. That is a college where you end up with a great job after studying
for like 60 days in 4 years and not even knowing your profs faces until you end
up actually answering a viva to them in the end sem examination, It is also a
college where you have exams only once in a sem and not every third day. Most
people that go there ought to be smart - they coolly take up a job in some big
company and get settled in life. But, then there are also fools like me who look
for the "better things in life", slog their asses out and land up in IIMB.
I'll let you in on a secret. I made the choice of coming to
Bangalore because the city was great. Cal was too far and Lucknow was too hot.
Besides, Bangalore had the nightlife. But duh, I have not been to the city once
in the last 68 days I have been here. How do you spell it? P-U-B??? Oh, then
they said that IIMB had the most amazing women. The women that I always dreamed
of as I went around REC Surat praying to be delivered from the drought. First
day at IIMB: Voila! It was true. Women at last! This was going to be fun. I was
already imagining all sorts of stuff. You always do when you come off 4 years in
a class with 30 guys and not much more. But, dreams they say end soon. Mine did
the next day. That was when I realized that all those angels that had lit up my
life for the last 24 hours were those that had graced this place a year back. As
far as our batch went, it should suffice to say - to put it diplomatically -
there were no angels. Was I depressed??
But that was because class had not yet started. The big
picture had only started to unveil itself. We belong to a batch that is
one-fourth IIT. Bad? More than half our batch has work experience. Hah! And
there are only 21 women. To be a guy like me - fresh out of an REC, no work
experience, looking for visual stimulation and to enjoy two years out here is
what is spelt b-a-n-e by the best dictionaries. And what is worse is that summer
placements are coming up in a month. We've got all the biggies lined up just
waiting to "lap up the best talent". If you were me, you'd know exactly why the
part in the inverted commas depresses me.
Not to say that it is the end of the world though. For people
like me (and don't be mistaken there are many), we have what we affectionately
call the 'Learning Mode'. That is our answer to the RG's of the world. We are
not here for grades. We are here to learn. That is our philosophy. The whole
point is that we are reconciled to the fact that if not JP Morgan, we could
always turn to our friendly neighborhood paanwallah and setup JP Murugan. We
have an answer to everything. You can't knock us down. At least not until the
day you go to Lehman and we, to Andhra Dairy.
So my dear diary, till we meet again (and don't get your
hopes too high). Adios.
