2 Years:Made a Man Out Of a Boy

Circa, July 2006; a boy with shattered dreams, enters the premises of NIT Kurukshetra. He has fought & fought awkwardly yet brilliantly. He gave his best for cat 2005, but it was not to be. He has it in him to crack into an elite MBA institute, but as I said, it was not to be. So with nervousness, he sets afoot into the “Oh So Dead” NIT campus. He has been admitted into the first ever MBA batch of NITK. A batch of 60 students, 60 so called non-NITians, we liked to call ourselves MBIans. Some of them had brilliant academic records and yet they were here in “oh so DEAD” college, and he had an average pathetic, academic record & he too was here.

But it wasn’t too bad for him!!!!!!!!

His name was Yogesh & he is a different person now, altogether a different person, A Boy Transformed into a Man.

It was a real experience to stay in hostel. I learned much more there than I did in classroom. I am having this itchy feeling to narrate major incidents which transformed me.

Mass Bunk that was never there: It was a mass bunk that didn’t materialized. Nobody liked to attend after lunch classes. One day there was a buzz that there would be a planned organized mass bunk of Neenu Madam after lunch class, our first (&last) planned mass bunk. I took the initiative, informed girls through Nidhi, not to attend the class, told hosteliers in mess not to go for class, and informed day-scholars through punit. Punit was however agitated that how can we hosteliers decide for the whole class without considering Dayskis. I told him, that you guys weren’t present over there. Anyway he told me straight that I would attend class & since it was necessary that none of us should be present to salvage the attendance, I knew that all plans have gone honky-donkey. I had to inform everyone that class will take place, and in response to all this I faced wrath of everyone. This event also marked the line between hosteliers and Dayskis.

Lesson learnt: Garner Support for a Cause Then Act.

First GT Party: It was a challenge, thrown open by Aarti Madam on Wednesday, in tutorial class, a challenge taken by Apeksha & achieved by Yogesh with the help of Sakshi. Day scholars (again punit) categorically refused to organize GT at such a short notice, they even refused to attend, but nevertheless they came, they danced, and danced so well.(Thanks for your support guys, GT was not meant to sideline you guys)

Lesson learnt: Try Before You Fail.

Elections: Gaurav Mukhija was elected unanimously as president of MBA society. Six committees were under him. Politics can be quite funny.

Vishal clear cut choice for literary committee, backed out. Nikhil with 2 votes get to be secretary, but he did a great job. Gagan selected unanimously for Bulls & Bears, Sorry to say this buddy, but you disappointed. Hiamnshi selected for culture activities and man has this bindaas attitude. Accolades to you girl. Richa Lal: GT secretary, well frankly speaking she won because, other candidate was Anurag, a dayski, who didn’t had a single vote from hosteliers. Nadeem was chosen for sports , and he stole the show with basketball match between MB1 and MB2 groups. Finally it’s my area, an acrimonious battle between Apeksha and me for the post of Finance secretary. I never had the support of Dayskis, and it didn’t helped that other candidate happened to be a female. Somehow I won with the margin of a single vote.

This activity provided fuel to increasing fire between hosteliers and dayskis.

Apart from this divide other battlelines were being drawn in our hostel

This was a battle between uparwale and neechewale. First evidence of it was to come through “Change of mess” all of us agreed, that our mess was indeed a in a complete state of Mess. But uparwale summarily rejected to change the mess because neechewalon ka proposal tha. But no grudges, because we too opposed them bitterly for trivial causes.

Lesson learnt: Weigh Down your opponents, before they weigh you.

Talent Hunt: It was a war between me and 3 other guys, popularly known as Trimurti. They made every effort to corner me, but I didn’t relented. However triplets managed to add to their ever increasing nuisance value, one of them went on to call the event a grand success, which according to my core group was a farce.

Lessons learnt: don’t recognize your failures publicly, never deny your success in public.

1^st Common Room meeting: Another evidence that I was really unpopular, was a common room meeting which followed within days of talent hunt show. I was the centre of mayhem, that was one of ugly faces of politics, but I had a supporter, the man, the president himself “Gaurav Mukhija” & that made me believe that truth will prevail. Rival camp then went into damage control mode & what followed was a proxy war.

In fact I was all alone till that common room meeting, but after their move backfired, I got many supporters, notably among them were Kuldeep and Depankar. After that it was a relatively cool 2^nd semester, till placement committees were formed.

Placement Committee: Trimurti took the onus to do placement work, starting with summer training, nothing of concrete value came out of their efforts, but it laid a foundation stone of feeling of disgust for them. It also divided the whole class into three groups. They , Us and neutrals. (Neutrals weren’t really neutral but they were taking their time to jump into one boat or other)

Lessons learnt: Sometimes you should try not to compete, especially when you know conditions do not warrant any competition.

2^nd Common room Meeting: Initial Placement committee was changed many times over, placement brochure was being designed by six members, and other six members were working on contents. This was the time when neutrals started jumping on one boat or others, dayskis came in our boat, some girls came to our side too. We lost Vishal though. That was another stupid mistake on their part to touch a lion’s den. You cannot take the credit of work which has been done by Gaurav Mukhija. They tried and failed miserably. Somehow I was pushed into Placement committee, yet the control remained with the triplets. However there wasn’t any silver lining in sight. It didn’t helped their cause that even faculty was dead against them. Attention of whole class was shifting on them, they needed a culprit to pass on to masquerading crowd, and who better culprit than their staunch critic, Yogesh. With this move, they could have eliminated me and hence the 2^nd common room meeting was organized. However I had the support this time, so again it was not to be, in fact it provided us more supporters, notably among them were Jaswinder, Ashutosh and Arun. This event marked the entry of Sumit & Vishal into placement committee. It was efforts of Vishal only that we did managed to achieve a near 100% placement.

Lesson learnt: fight well even if odds are against you, because you never know who your real enemy is, and who your real friend is.

Girlfriend: In between all this frenzied activities a girl silently walked in my life, almost unnoticeably. Which helped me in losing some of my friends (in fact all of them except two) and I am still clueless for how having a girlfriend bothers some of my friends to such an extent that they decide to launch another battle.

Lesson learnt: don’t try to fulfill everybody’s expectations

Umang07, IIT Kanpur: It’s a secret well kept, we won accolades, we won media attention, we had public sentiments with us, but I failed, and I am sorry that I let 12 people down including myself

Lesson learnt: don’t promise which you cannot perform and don’t perform which you haven’t promised.

In the end it was Hari’s chicken only which helped me in staying at campus. And yes I cannot forget 3 things about NITK campus:

• Fake attitude of so called superior engineers, you sucked guys, you really did.
• Nights spent in CCN, downloading movies.
• Long walks to Brahma Sarovar and Railway station.

Now I am left with some happy, and some gory memories, but nonetheless fascinating memories.

Thank you guys, thank you faculty members and thank you life for making me a part of this wonderful experience.