The campus in the clouds never sleeps. A future manager suddenly wakes up to the sounds of joy coming from the meeting area between the hostels, our beloved quadrangle. He walks towards the sounds confused what could be so important at 12 AM in the night. He reaches there and witnesses something he had long forgotten since his graduation college. A birthday. The whole batch, celebrating the fact that one of them is now closer to his forties. Everyone is happy except, the person of the hour. Running to hide, the celebrations here can sometimes be painful.
Lesson 1, wear lots of clothes on your birthday.
The next morning, our future manager wakes up in time for his 9 AM class has his breakfast, as the meals are necessary, and reaches the class at 8:58 AM, only to find out that the attendance is over. Before he knows it, multiple assignments are bombarded on him, to be submitted before the stroke of 12. It's 11:58 you open the submission portal to find the deadline is already over.
Lesson 2, know your facilitators (Professors of IIM Shillong).
It’s still not the end of the world, our brave manager, now more knowledgeable than ever decides to start over tomorrow with a conviction to do better this time. But if the campus never sleeps then, how can he? His cell rings again. Another email! Inductions for various committees of college begin tonight, bring your laptops and water bottles, it’s going to be along a long night and later a short sleep, if at all. He braves through all the inductions only to realize he does not want to take part in some of the committees.
Lesson 3, know your interests.
It's a long journey ahead, and he will meet many people along the way. Some of them stick around. He will meet some of the best groups of people in life here. One of them is his study group. You work with them for the next two years to come. Assignment deadline is suddenly achievable. The group works on the strengths of its members. Learning from each other, working in harmony and completing tasks which were in not possible alone.
Lesson 4, keep your study group together.
Now unable to walk he stumbles into unknown corridors of the hostels. He dreads the worst. It’s the senior wing. A gate opens and invites him in. Scared he slowly walks towards the light. He is flabbergasted by sight. A room full of seniors and everyone is happy. It was a dawn of truth for him (as the night passed in inductions), the seniors tell him what to concentrate and when to concentrate. MBA is rigorous work, he learns the need to work together and more importantly to learn from the experience of others.
Lesson 5, your seniors are your lifeline, know them, respect them, trust them. What they do might not make sense initially, but they do it for your good.