B-School Life shouldn't and isn't about learning new things, sitting for lectures, making timely submissions, networking, finding the right question to answer and so on. It's supposed to be the most amazing time of your life. And it can't be the most amazing time of your life if there is no FUN involved. So to promote this idea - B-School is not all work but also FUN, we, at InsideIIM, have come up with a new series called 'Humour on Campus'. Just in time for April Fool's Day.
A b-school is nothing short of a stage set for a comedy of errors. You break, you mend and then you laugh! Because on a good day, even a class of 40 gets an attendance of 80 and on a bad day, name it and the omen will strike you on your face. Some of my handpicked favourites are as follows:-
The charm of exams? Gone, baby, gone!
It all started with the foundation course which in its very first week had given us the sense of impending doom. As if sleepless nights of ‘pre-reads’ aren’t enough, the daily doses of surprise quizzes are timely delivered to keep our spirits up. Our eyes are more glued to our inboxes than the lecturer awaiting the announcement from examination cell. You may have foreseen the exam but the catch will lie in the syllabus. You may have even worked that out but the time constraint will get the best of you. You may have strategised some friendly collaboration to save time but the seating arrangement will defy you the lifeline. By some stroke of luck, even if you manage to get everything right, finance questions will trump you. As engineers comprise 80% of the batch, needless to say, the marks curve was highly skewed.
Sab band hai!
The wand of ill fate is not just limited to exams. Laptop fails you in the hour of the exam, wi-fi fails you in the hour of submission and if nothing else,
Bistro &
Shillu’s fail you in the hour of hunger.
Oops, I did it again!
From being a spammer’s tool to being a stalker’s refuge, Whatsapp keeps on adding the spice. Amidst so many official groups and again their informal versions, messages often get misdirected. But if that text is ahem a bit impersonal and full of expressive emoticons, it just makes our day and sends the victim straight to hell. Many have professed their love, revealed nicknames and even declared their secret trips to Marine Drive on the social platform. But all hell breaks loose when your professor is a part of the same chat group. It’s an art to make it back from there unscathed.
The night that was...
Had an epic hangover? Been there, done that! Had sent a drunken text? Been there, done that! Sent it to the entire batch? Understandable! Mailed it to PGDM heads? Go dig your coffin!
Sardi, khaasi na Loveria hua, ye gaya yaaron isko Malaria hua
Saving the worst for the last is nature’s best way to get back at you. The veteran mosquitoes of Mumbai leave no stone unturned in giving you this love bite. If you have escaped so far, then wish you good luck for future and if not, then good luck with rescheduling your exams.
We find humour in everything from bunking classes to flunking exams. You are basically pushed to the brink of a meltdown where you discover a new found respect for anything remotely comical. What we have managed to do by the end of our first year is to develop an uncanny ability of
damage control. Somewhere between dreaming to scoring 3+ and praying to get a passing 2.4, we have all grown up.