Arnab Goswami might damage his voice after engaging in a two hours long verbal battle with a politician, but the students of IIM Lucknow can scream out loud enough to break records and statistics. Such is the enthralling crowd of the best brains in the country. And such is the rare occasion when these unlikely and uncommon quintessential would-be managers do get together to shout.
The 29
th batch of PGP entered the gates of IIM Lucknow with a population of diverse background from lawyers to musicians to cricketers to pharmacists… and a smile on each of their faces. Their eyes, wide with self esteem for getting the IIM tag, were awaiting tears of anxiety and tension in the recent future for the two years ahead. First there was the CAT… which they could all bell. And there they were, more indifferent than ever, about any reason why IIM L could be called Hell.
And with the morning alarm on the 18
th day of June, the Induction programme began. The Director and the Dean welcomed the Governor of UP, the chief guest of the day. The students in their business formals were already feeling the warmth of being a CEO. That was a Monday.
A week passed with inflated ego lurking behind wide smiles… only the selfdom to be crushed mercilessly by the Monday that showed up. Thus began the sleepless nights, the “hell”thy and strong night mess coffee and chicken rolls, the management jargons and… hold on your breath… the classes… that got more sleepy than ever. The eyes those were once as wide as anything could now barely remain open. With their heads as heavy as lead… they decided to sleep instead. They hung in slow simple harmonic motions (SHM). And then suddenly, like a bolt in the blue, a surprise quiz was announced. Boom! The SHMs ceased and the sleep disappeared.
The quiz got over and the heads hung low with zeroes running in the mind and the heart pumping fast. And with a bunch of high spirited people around and given the fact that 99 of every 100 persons think they are innocents, the blame was passed on to the professors for being cruel or any other creative complimentary or visionary substitution … the atmosphere was back to normal… the same sleepless nights, the night mess coffee and the drowsy classes. The thoughtfully gullible, the willingly clumsy, the skilfully frenetic, the woeful survivors on milk and cornflakes make IIM L (read Hell) Hellarious… an unbelievable combination of always-in-a-hurry nerds and unpredictable times.
This article is written by Debalina Haldar, class of 2015 student at IIM Lucknow. Her novel, The Female Ward, was published in May, 2013. She is the Creative Head and Core Coordinator of the Media and Communication Cell at IIM Lucknow.
