Utsav 2011

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.

Utsav 2011

During my school days, I always thought of extra-curricular activities as a means to stay away from class without losing your attendance. During my engineering college days, even an excuse like that was not needed to bunk class as we hardly had any class and attendance (read ‘proxy’) was not a concern at all (Studying in a government engineering college had its own advantages!).  I always used to find some excuse to stay away from all these activities during my school and engineering college days. It is only when I started working that I realized that I had made a mistake by letting go of the many opportunities that I had to take part in such activities. When I joined ASB, I was determined that I would never make that mistake again. 

The first major event that happened in our college was ‘Utsav’ – our annual college arts and sports festival where the students are divided into four houses and the house with the maximum points walks away with the coveted ‘Utsav trophy’. The theme for ‘Utsav 2011’ was ‘Royal fiesta’ though it was more like a ‘Royal battle’ towards the end, with the houses battling it out for the trophy. 

I had made up my mind that I would participate only for those competitions that I was good at. But fate had some other plans for me. I was elected as one of the two captains of my house and there was an unwritten rule in ‘Utsav’ that if an event did not have any participants from a house, the captain had to take part in it, whether you were good at it or not. And that is how I ended up doing things that I would never have imagined doing, not even in my wildest dreams. Dancing on stage, playing table tennis, singing on stage with a karaoke, poetry writing – I did it all. One of the best things about ‘Utsav’ is that it did not matter whether you were good or bad, whether you won or lost; the only thing that mattered was whether you at least tried. 

‘Utsav’ was a very taxing time for both students as well as faculty; students trying hard to juggle academics and events, and teachers complaining that studies take a back seat during it. With events happening early in the morning, evening and late in the night, many of us spent sleepless nights during those days. I remember, I once fell asleep during Achath Sir’s statistics class during ‘Utsav’ time. 

In the end ‘Utsav’ was not just about fun and games, it was a great learning experience for most of us. I learnt my first lessons in Human Resource management during ‘Utsav’. I realized that managing people was not an easy job after all. ‘Utsav’ also taught me a great deal about team work and negotiation too. I remember our professor Shri Krishnan Sir say that events like ‘Utsav’ are not “extra-curricular”, they are in fact very much a part of the curriculum. Some of the best managerial lessons we learnt were during these events. 

Today as I sit in my office engrossed in work, I occasionally think about those days spent in Ettimadai especially the ‘Utsav’ days.  True to its name ‘Utsav’ was a celebration that gave us some of the most memorable moments of our college life. I have no regrets now as I made up for all that I could not do in my school and engineering college in ASB. Life does give you a second chance, sometimes.