It’s been nearly a month in IIM Shillong and I am just in love with the green campus we have and the natural beauty of Meghalaya, especially that of Cherrapunji and the areas nearby. I visited Cherrapunji along with my batch mates on the very next day of jaunt to MawPhlang forest. Undoubtedly, Cherrapunji is among one of the best places I have been to. The highlands are as lush green as they can get and their power to transcend you to another level is truly exceptional. Then there are smoky clouds which seem to converge on you and make you feel majestic. The journey itself epitomizes a tourist destination. And the most amazing thing about the trip is that I can still see those exceptional views when I close my eyes. I can see the lush green hills, extremely deep valleys, a beautiful garden, several waterfalls, forests, beautiful wavy roads and those clouds. It is as if somebody has painted the canvas of life with different shades to bring out the best nature can offer. I can just visualise myself looking out of the window of our bus and the breeze rustling through and making me feel free. The very view of a clear sky, untainted by any amount of pollution can be liberating. Those were the emotions that I don’t have the words to describe. I can just feel them. And that was a high of its own kind not experienced by this writer before.
Anyways, I will come back to my campus and will shed some light on the special events of the last month. As expected, none of us missed an opportunity to have fun at any point of time. We had the birthdays of many of eminent personalities of our batch and we celebrated them like anything. But what transpired at Kush’s birthday cannot be discussed on this blog. Nevertheless, more than any single event, it is more of a combination of small-small moments that make life special here. It can be as simple as fighting to get hold of a badminton or table tennis racket or taking a walk in the campus when everyone has gone to sleep or the long discussions. The discussions tend to range from heavy to extremely stupid and silly things. But the essence is in the belongingness rather than the subject of discussion. It has a beauty of its own.
By now, the reader must be wondering that IIMS is all about fun and all is cool here. But let me just tell you that they make you feel rigour instead of just putting it in a brochure. We have days where sleeping looks like an activity of past. Even the shortest possible amount of sleep looks unachievable. You have got assignments, clubs and committees work and other commitments to honour. Loss of sleep and changes in behavioural patterns is directly proportional to the speed at which a course goes. And the expectations of the instructors should not be talked about. Amidst all this chaos, many of us did not even realize that at least one fifth of many course books have been covered and we are expected to know everything because a surprise quiz or random questions might be round the corner. And it does not end here. A lot many of us wait for the weekends to finish the backlog, only to find that it is already booked with corporate visits, guest lectures or knowledge sharing sessions. In a short span of time, we have had the honour of interacting with chairman of ISRO, Minister of DONER and Chairman NEC, President of HCL, CEO of Hammer communications, Chairman UPSC etc. to name a few. These interactions have a charm of their own. And being a part of an academic legacy, you would not want to miss out on those interactions. So the result is more sleepless nights.
In a nutshell, you need not go to an amusement park to find what a roller coaster means, come here to experience it first-hand. It will be exciting, humbling, encouraging, thought provoking and worth every bit of effort you put in. That is what life is made up of at my Alma Mater. This is Life @ IIM Shillong.
