Life and times at IIMC -Beyond placement figures
I have never ever posted at this forum before this, pre or post taking CAT. Having spent one year at IIMC (in which thoughts of flunking one stats course here or the other finance course there have besotted my dreams), I believe the celerity with which events passed by last year at IIMC would leave any B-school denizen worth his/her salt panting, and quite amazingly still…asking for more.
I was a frustrated software engineer whose drinking bouts had followed a dangerous double exponentially increasing pattern ever since the day I had joined this industry. Purely due to the sudden unhealthy (for my belly as well as bank account belly)exposure to cash, flexi timings(flexibility of the order of a boxer short that fits the entire Pakistani cricket team) and ‘extreme’ fatigue that sets in on surfing net and chatting all day long. That was when certain well meaning friends told me to write CAT. Equip yourself with a course they ordered and I did so.
Let’s skip my trials and tribulations till the day I landed my feet on the most lovely campus I have ever seen: IIM Calcutta(for an exclusive piece on my t&t pre IIMC , mail me at
gauravt2006@email.iimcal.ac.in.).After 2 initial weeks of soggy weather things starting cooling off. And I set out on a campus tour with some national geographically inclined friends. I love exploring and believe me nature and infrastructure are not at each other’s expense here. Stunningly beautiful lakes, bird watching (not just ogling at females), and believe me some of the most amazingly hypnotic rains I have seen cohabit with some amazing infrastructural beauties like the auditorium (plz to check out the website).
To look at just the serene locales and imply IIMC to be a somnolent campus might be intuitive, albeit a gargantuan misread. The campus is swarming with a vicissitude of activities. The extent to which IIMC manages to motivate you for sports/athletics/extracurrics can be validated by the fact that a person like me who last ran in kindergarten (because back then every kid had to run for lollypops) in a dodo of an event called triple legged race (but won a bronze mind you), managed 3 complete rounds of the institute in a stretch (and boy that is something); was lapped up by the coveted adventure club(whose founder Malli mastan babu, IIT kgp IIMC guy is right now on his way to complete a mission to conquer 7 top peaks in the world) of the institute on completion of this feat. I think about a hundred people ran. And I was in top 30. Nobody’s complaining. There is volley aandozzz, basky, football and tennis up for grabs for the rest.
Meanwhile things had started “warming” up acads wise. Ahem. We had some of the most studaaaps professors teaching us. Especially remarkable was our first stats prof Dr. Rahul Mukherjee from Indian statistical institute who made even stats look simple(now some of my batch mates will insist that stats is simple, but I was talking about lesser mortals like me). Our stats prof told us we’ll have binary marking for the exam (ie if the answer is wrong you don’t get any credit for the attempt). Ahem ahem. A paper which shrieks from the rooftop that it’s a 3 hour exam, packed into 1.5. Ahem ahem ahem. But frankly speaking now I realize that it was about learning how to handle pressure and not any point the profs wanted to prove. A lesson I failed to learn then. And after a year a learning that I can single out amongst all is this ability. This ability of not to let pressure get into your head.
Some courses IIMC offers are unique, and some B-schools that have come up in the last couple of decades (mind you we are the oldest IIM) would rather swap fancy named “MODERN” courses for these. I turn around and humbly DISAGREE . Some of the most intellectually motivating courses like Indian social structure, Indian economic and political history are alive and kicking in this portal. We have an upcoming course on public administration I am eagerly looking forward to. And of course there are courses aplenty for fin focused, mar focused, sys focused(although haven’t known many of this ilk), and a neighborhood friendly B-school(anybody’s guess) for HR focused people.
First two terms went by and I had kind of settled. First term had been devastating in terms of acads (no matter how tough the exams were, junta cracked them with a panache). And the second term went by licking wounds and trying to salvage some pride. But I really enjoyed working on academic/non academic projects, which we had an amazing freedom to choose from amongst a plethora(a couple of them being: studying BBC’s organizational structure and Critical success factors for the Indian film industry). Then came the third, which many a guys would vouch for as the most critical term. Not only in the kind of courses it offers, but also as a term capable of ripping apart your vigilantly defended GPA.
And I had inadvertently poked my nose into practically every thing that ‘extra’ about the curriculum that term. I had my apprehensions (which ranged from petty ones like missing out on good movies to serious ones like not doing justice to projects). But then I guess I finally learnt some nuances of managing time, which only academic things(and movies) couldn’t teach me. I was part of the annual English play(which is a big deal considering months go into the preps), part of the annual Business meet INTAGLIO, working on a marketing research project full time, and of course attending classes. Not that I couldn’t manage a tennis session once or twice a week, a movie here and there, and dined out unabashedly. Believe me they were the most fulfilling months in my life after quite some time.
And of course for the audience looking for vicarious titillation I’d oblige by saying that I came out unscathed after all this academically. No I am not saying this was not at CG’s expense, but then I have seen people managing all this plus decent grades.
Basically I have had a great time in the last 10 months learning new things(excellent courses and profs), doing new things. There is not an iota of doubt in my mind that these were the best days of my life and I am voraciously looking forward to the next year. I sincerely believe that IIMC treats you like a mature individual and gives you freedom to allocate time to things you are passionate about along with the academic compulsions.
Regards,
Gaurav Thapar
P.S. The party scene at IIMC(from all night musical performances by our musical club JBS/BARO C, booze sessions to alums night to GGP to etc etc) just rawwks and deserves a full fledged article. I might drop in one in the days to come.
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