The primary reason for this post: To save writing in separately to family and friends about the 1st day here..... Secondary reason: 1 year down the line, provide a perspective of what I felt in the first few days !
The flight from Bangalore to Ahmedabad on Monday was totally uneventful.... Was exposed to the famous-by-word-of-mouth Kingfisher service as soon as I reached Blore airport. Met Narayanan and his family, and we were able to get our luggage checked in without having to shell out any extra bucks for the weight we were carrying beyond the permissible limit... The flight was on time, and after listening to Mallya and Yana Gupta tell us how happy they were to have us on board, we were ready for take-off. Neither Nari nor me had flown for quite a while, and the adrenaline rush we felt as the plane surged ahead.... Wow, made me want to have a bike with that kinda power :)
A heavy snack finished, we were content gazing out or watching some old "cricket classics" on TenSports.. Soon had a stop-over at Pune, and after 1:45 hrs we again went thru the Mallya+Yana+Lunch routine...
We reached Ahmedabad around 3.15 after having heard the Captain's attempt to amuse us over the PA system.
"My dear guests... We are 170 km South of Ahmedabad, and will soon be descending. The ground temperature is a
bit hot, actually it is
quite hot, it is 38 degrees centigrade."
We were soon on an Indica after having settled rather amicably on Rs.280 with a taxi-driver to take us to 'Management'. The driver turned out to be rather friendly, and gave us descriptions of the areas we were passing..... Nari, for one, was totally taken in by the roads. After Blore, ANY place will have better roads :|
After unloading out luggage, we found people ready to help us with lug it along. We made our way to the SAC office located in D-4, and after a few formalities had our room-keys in our hands: Nari in D-18 (Old campus has dorms 1-18 and the new one 19-25) and me in D-21. We parted ways, and headed for our respective dorms following the bhai's who obviously knew the way inside out. I had to do my share of luggage-moving, and to cut a long story short, reached the new campus all tired and sweaty. Found my room after a fair bit of searching, courtesy our bhai. It was on the 2nd floor, and the last room in the corridor. It also happened to be the room closest to the common room, which was equipped with a TV, carrom board, and chairs. The room had a long computer table, a computer chair, one more chair, a stool, bed & mattress, and a built-in cupboard, which in turn contained...... I was not to find out for another hour. It had been locked, and sepite searching I was unable to locate the key. Curing my misfortune, I went all the way back to D-4 and miraculously found a locksmith there. I was able to obtain his services, and he spent the better part of the next hour opening the cupboard and making me duplicates. The cupboard contained many ledges, and I now have more cupboard space than I ever had, even at home!
Nari had accompanied me back, and after I paid his dorm/room a return visit, we left on a mission to buy an essential item - a pillow. We headed right from the IIMA main gate, and were surprised to see the number of mobile kitchens parked, ready to dish out local cuisine. After commenting on the buildings we passed (Ahmedabad Management Association - seemed to trying to emulate the arch. of the IIM A campus ; Mocha - a coffee hangout ; another Wifi-enabled coffee bar ; CareerLauncher office - Their marketing pitch could perhaps quite literally claim "If you are here, you are very close to reaching the top B-school in the country" ) we finally reached a junction, and quite a large number of commercial establishments. A lassi later, we continued with our zeal restored. From a Khadi shop, we were able to procure 2 cotton pillows ( which acc. to Nari were better in hotter climate than pillows with synthetic stuffing).
We made our way to a nearby restaurant which advertised south Indian food ( surprisingly, most joints clubbed it with
Punjabi food! ). Our appetite sated, we made our way back to campus and went our each way. I came to the room, and decided to unpack and stow away all the contents of my bags into appropriate shelves. This task done, I was too tired to attempt much more and decided to go to sleep. This last statement was a rather miserable experience, as the oppressive heat made lying down still a difficult task in itself. After a nightmare-filled highly disturbed sleep I decided I had enough of it and checked the clock - 4:30 AM. After seeing the pleasant breeze I decided I needed some peaceful rest, posture be damned. So got the chair out into my teeny-weeny balcony and went to sleep reclining on it. 2 hours later, I was up and ready to start my day.
So ends my first post from IIM A. Its 3 AM, I'm going to be up this late ( early ? ) almost daily in a few days, so I'm going to try and catch some shut-eye. Btw, the climate seems to have taken a turn for the better, with lightning visible in the distant horizon and a cool breeze rustling the sleeping trees (
even the room seems considerably cooler today). I hope to be able to *actually* get some sleep tonight.
It is said that the fachchas(chis) have brought the rain with them the last 3 years. Will the rains keep their tryst with destiny this year too? I sure hope they do !
