On 18th June, 2018 I began my much-awaited journey of pursuing MBA at Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar with starry-eyed optimism and unbridled excitement. From the onset of the very first day itself, I realized that this was truly a course like no other. From the pre-course assignments to the model group discussions and case presentations, the first week at XIMB went away in a jiffy. I was suddenly accustomed to the much-heard MBA lifestyle, where no amount of work seemed impossible in a single day itself. Amidst, all the chaos of studies and other co-curricular activities, the inner music aficionado in me wondered, when do we get to explore our hobbies? From a very young age, I had a certain fascination towards performing on stage, it was probably the result of being exposed to the magic and the mania that was “The Beatles”, a little too much. Nevertheless, I had heard a lot about XIMB’s fabled cultural activities and was eagerly awaiting the same.
One fine morning, there it was, the mail from X-stage, the cultural committee of XIMB. To my immense joy, it was the call for auditions in music, dance, fashion and drama. The hunt for XIMB’s very own performing stars had begun. With great exhilaration, I picked up my guitar and started practicing for the X-capade Auditions, the first opportunity for the performers of the new batch. On the day of the audition, after much deliberation, I had chosen “Wonderwall by Oasis” as my choice of song for the category of western singing. With equal parts of nervousness and eagerness, I went to audition for X-capade to the last year’s winner of the same competition. Much to my relief, the audition went as well as it could have and by the end of the next day, I found my name on the poster of the main event.
Finally, the much-anticipated day of the performance had arrived, I had added certain tweaks to my performance at the audition, even adding a bit of the song “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” at the end of the entire jig, just to gain a little more familiarity with the audience. With a lot of enthusiasm mixed with a certain amount of trepidation, I went up on stage. At the back of my mind, I thought, this is a new and unfamiliar stage, not the one I have been used to playing for four years of college, Will I come through? To my surprise, all my fears went away as soon as I stepped on stage, almost of all of my classmates had turned up and guess what? They were chanting my name in unison. Half of them had not even heard me sing ever. I felt like a Rockstar. Needless to say, I performed without any fear and sang to my heart’s content. The feeling was beyond words.
Even though I failed to win the competition, I went back with a lot of pleasant memories and with my head held high. This experience had made me even more excited to continue performing on the stage, here at XIMB, my home for the next couple of years.
Saswata Samanta
Batch of 2018-20, XIMB
