As the cab entered the gates of Khelgaon Housing Complex on 15
th June’17, I peered out of the front seat car window with eyes full of anticipation and anxiety for what lies in store for me in the next two years. Fast forward one and a half month, I am already done with my midterm exams today as I start pondering on my journey till here. Not much before, on a pleasant day in May, the Gods decided to smile upon me and grant my wish of converting IIM Ranchi in the first list. And now I am here sitting in my room at 2:30 am contemplating on it. So, you must be considering me as insane, thinking who sits up till 2:30 am to start writing an article when you have the whole weekend ahead. My dear friends, this is the consequence of having sleepless nights since 17
th June’17 and now if you get a single night with a somewhat lesser load of work, you remain awake till 4 am – not because you are in love, but because you have become a nocturnal mammal.
Well, not blabbering much, let me share my or in general our new Batch's experience in IIM Ranchi till now. As the TBBT title track goes – “It all started with the big bang!” and surely did it. On the first day itself, after a session on basics of film making, we were given the task of making 5 minutes short film on a non-existent non-Oxford word “Irempokely” (Google it and IIM Ranchi has it defined for you now!) in 24 hours with 20 unknown faces. This was Management Challenge 1 thrown at us by Prof. Gaurav Marathe and our senior batch. And what followed was our first almost sleepless night and the series continued henceforth. Surpassing successfully 2 more Management Challenges (‘What is Management?’ and Cultural Evening), a couple of treasure hunts, sports activities and yoga sessions, we officially became the ‘crows’ of IIM Ranchi. With this, started our regular first term classes and I2B sessions from seniors to help us get accustomed to the ‘biz’ world and its way of working. From sessions on analytics to human resource to marketing, we had all, regularly (even on weekends), after our daily dosage of scheduled classes. As assignments started pouring in with pre-formed groups allotted by seniors, we juggled between their respective deadlines and the academic classes in our ‘all-confused new life’. Each I2B assignment had a different group and in 15 days, I can vouch that each student came to know almost 75% of the batch by face, if not the names of 240 odd newly born crows. With I2B sessions ending, emails started appearing in our mail boxes at odd hours for surprise quizzes and midterm exam schedule. FRCM aka Accounts seem to be the most dreaded paper among the engineers while non-engineers hated Statistics. From Gyaan Sessions on these papers to corporate competitions’ deadlines, we started realising the MBA life reality. Whatsapp group texts increased and senior-junior friendship bloomed as days passed. Finally came the not so welcoming midterm week. Study rooms started filling up with groups till dawn and now, we are done and dusted with Term1 midterm exams.
Whoa! One and a half month gone and still much more lies ahead of us. With such a hectic schedule, each one of us has learned our own share of valuable lessons in this short span. I don’t know the outcome of this roller-coaster ride but I can predict that I shall surely learn a lot of things before I leave this place. With some of the best in-house faculties, awesome seniors and trustworthy friends, this ride will be one of my most cherishing ones ever. And with this, I end by quoting IIM Ranchi’s golden principle cum rule - “Deadlines are Sacrosanct”. Hence, brace yourself to adhere to it once you’re here!