For MBA students, 2
nd October is not just a national holiday, it is a day of snoozing alarms. However, this time, everyone made an exception. This year, students of 1
st and 2
nd year got out of their beds to help participate in the Swachh Bharat campaign.
Ecobiz celebrated Gandhi Ji’s birthday with a wonderful ritual of cleaning the campus. Each year it chooses a theme to celebrate 2
nd October with, and this year it was to “Respect the Heroes.” The heroes being, our cleaning staff.
IIM Shillong is not merely the campus on clouds, it is also a squeaky-clean plastic free campus with cute little bamboo baskets as a proxy for “use me”. This has been made possible by the cleaning staff - Kongs (sister in Khasi) as we call them.
It was only logical for us to respect them by getting into their shoes and cleaning up the campus with our bare managerial hands. So, 2
nd October saw people with brooms, mops and pans cleaning up the beloved Campus.
And if anything could make it better, it was having the Director Dr Amitabh De, and the Chief Administrative Officer with us. Not only did the Chairman motivate us tremendously with his anecdotes about Gandhiji, or how important Cleanliness is, He also contributed to the mission and got his hands dirty. The 16 and 17 batch pledged together, to maintain a clean and diligent lifestyle, starting from small elements like making the bed by themselves, every day.
However, what really is the reason why we call the event a huge success - is the spontaneity and amazing spirit that the participants displayed. There were laughs and smiles even when there was no camera around! Everyone enjoyed what they were doing and the batch solidarity showed up in beautiful ways.
Ecobiz cannot wait for next year, to organize a wonderful event like this, that combines values with joy and ensures our campus, is gleaming clean with pride.
About the Author:
Sanchari Das
Office Bearer, EcoBiz Club - Class of 2019, IIM Shillong