And then the ice breaks

The journey to Planet-E and back: A walk down memory lane

A series of blogs about my alma mater - Amrita School of Business(ASB) located in the beautiful village of Ettimadai which we Amritians fondly call ‘Planet-E’ and the happenings in the eventful two years of my life there. Dedicated to all Amritians.

And then the ice breaks

The classes had begun and we were in the middle of a gamut of assignments, when our seniors returned to the college after a two month long summer internship. The very first time we all got together was during a colloquia session in SKH. Most of them came across as very reserved and serious. “All of them have loads of attitude”, “Not even one person is smiling at us”, we were very quick to judge our seniors and make comments about them. However that was how we felt about them before the Fresher’s Day – a day much awaited by the seniors (and much dreaded by the juniors).

Like most of the important events in ASB, this one too was held in SKH. The serious faces and reservations were long gone; the seniors we saw on that day in SKH were a total contrast to what we had imagined them to be. They were all smiles and friendly to us, the reason for which became evident only after the event started. Yes, it was an official ragging session, but in a fun way. We were made to do all sort of crazy things – from doing a ramp walk in a saree to mimicking animal sounds to proposing seniors, we did it all.

On that day we also came to know that our batch had a lot of good dancers and singers too. I can never forget Dimple dancing to “Munni badnam hui” (it almost became synonymous with Dimple after that dance) or Vaisakh and Bipin singing. We also realized that day that, ultimately it did not matter whether you knew how to dance or sing, what mattered was the confidence to do whatever the situation demanded, without any fear or inhibition.

The day was meant to be an ice-breaker between the seniors and juniors, and an ice-breaker it was. Very soon we all became good friends. In the days following the fresher’s day party, we had the selection rounds for the various forums in our college. It felt like an extended ragging session by the seniors, but we enjoyed it, and so did our seniors.

That was the beginning of a very colorful period of our college life. I felt that the fresher’s party was crazy, little did I know that more craziness and madness was to follow, as the biggest sports and  cultural extravaganza of ASB – ‘Utsav’ was about to begin soon. I belonged to the category of students who believed that college life was all about studies and immersing oneself in textbooks. My friends from my engineering college days would vouch for it. Well, all of that was about to change, very soon.

My first hero

They say that a child’s first hero is its father. I cannot agree more to that. As a child I had always idolized my father. I always tried to do things the way he did, especially the way he wrote. He had a habit of keeping a diary and I used to read it often. His handwriting was something that I had always admired. After many efforts of trying to write the way he did, I must say I came close. I used to get really excited when my mother used to say that my handwriting resembles his.

To me, my father is an epitome of honesty and sincerity. I always try to be as dedicated to my work, as my father was to his. Being the typical Capricorn that he is, everything he does has a touch of perfection. I like his perfectionism and obsession with orderliness. I guess it is because I myself am a Capricorn and to an extent share many of his personality traits, including his perfectionism. I sometimes feel that my mother deserves special appreciation for tolerating two Capricorns like us at the same time!

Simple, humble, kind and loveable, my father is my hero; he has always been and will always be. I continue to idolize him the way I used to when I was a child and every time someone tells me that I am just like my father, I feel proud and in my mind thank God for it. Today morning I wished my father saying “Happy Father’s day, Accha” and in my mind I said “Thank you Dad. I am what I am today because of you. I love you.”

Class Room 1 (CR1)

The journey to Planet-E and back: A walk down memory lane

A series of blogs about my alma mater - Amrita School of Business(ASB) located in the beautiful village of Ettimadai which we Amritians fondly call ‘Planet-E’ and the happenings in the eventful two years of my life there. Dedicated to all Amritians.

Class Room 1 (CR1) 

It had been three years since I last entered a class room. I felt like it had been ages since I left my engineering college. I was thrilled at the prospect of being a college student after a long time, but I was nervous too. When I joined Wipro after completing my graduation, I remember we had a training called ‘College to Corporate’. It was to help fresh college graduates get accustomed to the corporate culture at Wipro. During the initial days at Ettimadai, I felt like I very badly needed a ‘Corporate to College’ training to get back to being a student again.

I realized very early on that the transition from Corporate to College life was not going to be as easy as I thought it was. Long working hours, conference calls, deliverables, appraisals, work pressure, and deadlines – Corporate work was too taxing. The atmosphere in Ettimadai was entirely different. It was calm and peaceful. All was well until the classes began.

Firstly, I was struggling to stay awake in the class, especially during the first session in the morning. Many a time, I even dozed off in the class during the Morning Prayer before the first session! After the initial struggle however, I found a way around it. The solution was none other than the most popular item served in the ASB canteen – ‘Tea’. Never before in my life had I enjoyed and appreciated tea as much as I did during the two years that I was at Ettimadai.

That problem was far from solved, when I met my arch nemesis – ‘Financial Accounting’ (FA). Now that is one subject that still sends shivers down my spine each time I think about it. Finance was never (and I guess will never be) my favorite subject. My first encounter with finance did not go very well. Despite the efforts put in by our Financial Accounting Professor and my ‘finance nerd’ friends , I was struggling to make sense out of the finance concepts I was being taught. The mid-term exam for FA was a disaster; the end-term was even worse!

While FA was dreaded by most of us, there was one subject that almost all of us liked – ‘Micro Economics’ taken by Bala Sir. That was one session which all of us looked forward to. One can never forget Bala Sir’s inimitable style of saying ‘’People are rational’’ and also the various ET reading sessions in Sir’s class. I totally disliked reading ET back then, however I developed a liking for ET towards the end of the course.   

And that’s how classes began in ‘CR1’ (short for ‘Class Room 1’), a little bit of struggle in the beginning, but all went well afterwards. CR1 was our class room for the entire first year at Ettimadai. Though the initial days in CR1 were terrifying, thanks to FA, I have very fond memories of the time that I spent in CR1. Lots of learning, lots of discussions, lots of presentations, and not to forget, lots of exams happened in CR1. How I wish I could just go back in time and sit on one of those benches in CR1 and listen to those lectures once again!