It was about noon on Sunday when I arrived atthe Goa Institute of Management. For a new visitor it is quite easy to
miss the B-school with its old and timeworn building that looks over
the road and onto the river Mandovi. A small red sign on the wall of
the building simply states, aGoa Institute of Managementa.
I met some students of GIM who showed me around
the campus. Our first stop was the instituteas Placement Cell. I was
told that only members of the Placement Committee were allowed to enter
this office which students have interestingly only recently nicknamed
aThe Templea. GIM like most of Goa has adapted to modern times but at
the same time, preserved some sense of the past and I wasn't surprised
to be told that this site functioned for over 200 years as a hospital
and is in fact a heritage building. This blend of the times is best
displayed in the faculty cabins and classrooms which have tiled floors
and modern, air-conditioned interiors while the hostels and most
corridors of the building have stone floors and a much more vintage
look. Even the culture here has an interesting juxtaposition. One of
the notice boards in the college building has got printouts of
studentsa best GTalk status messages residing with handwritten notes of
people thanking roommates and friends for their help or for simply
having been there when needed.
Adjusting to B-school life in Goa is no mean
task. A female student comments, aWhen I came here, I got a culture
shock of sorts. The first week at GIM was like super fast and outside
in Goa, it is super slow!a Another student sums it up quite nicely when
he says, aPeople in Goa believe in the spirit of a Portugese word
called susegad
which roughly means a A little bit of liquor, a little bit of God, a
little bit of music and life goes well!a Lynn Bouselly, a female
student here puts forth an interesting point when she says, aOne
afternoon we were sitting around and looking out onto the Mandovi and
we noticed a couple of tourists throwing pebbles into the river simply
to splash some water. I told the folks with me, aDamn these tourists!a
It's then I realised that earlier I was one of them and now I so was
not.a Reuben De'Mellow, GIM student and native of Goa hears her out
with a wry smile on his face.
How much time do GIM students get to enjoy the
Goan life of sun, sand, beaches, parties et al? aHardlya, says a
student shortly. aItas almost as if weare staying in paradise but
looking out of a birdas cage,a wistfully says Akshay Raina, second year student and the
institutes's media co-ordinator. aA friend of
mine exclaimed that I must be doing my MBA on the beach!a aI replied,
aYeah, we watch the waves rolling up to the shore and get right back to
Micro Economicsa,a muses Lynn. Not all students feel this way though. A
few of them responded in a tongue in cheek manner, aOh, we do manage to
take time out to enjoy the life that Goa provides. After all, an MBA is
a lot about time managementa. Apart from this though, at odd hours of
the night, plans are made in a sudden flash of inspiration, bikes are
rolled out and students hop, skip and jump their way to the beaches,
moonlit waves and serenity that are Goaas pride. Fidalgoas, a trendy
hotel in Panjim is a hot favourite among GIM students for its popular
coffee shop a Aunty Maria. Akshay Nayak, a first year student says
simply, aIf Fidalgoas were to shut down, everyone at GIM would be
asleep!a
instituteas hostels have retained the names which the respective
buildings had when the campus functioned as a hospital. So, two of the
boyas hostels are still referred to as OT and Morgue. 'Morgue' as an
official tag for the other hostel has been removed because of obvious
concerns. Further, this hostel is primarily inhabited by geeks (at
this, Akshay Raina hurriedly tried to find a place to hide as he is one of them!) who love
the hostel as itas very peaceful. "I'm probably the only Marketing
major in Morgue but I sure will be a Finance major by the time I leave
GIM because of all the Finance people in the hostel!", dryly adds
Akshay. OT has not only retained the name but also the hustle and
bustle of an Operation Theatre. Students unanimously state that with
its Counter Strike fanatics and loud music, it is by far the liveliest
hostel.
Birthday celebrations at GIM are truly events. Two cakes are bought for
the birthday. One to share and eat and the other to ainventivelya use
in the birthday celebrations. Further, friends prepare videos in which
they describe the positives and negatives of the birthday boy/girl. The
collegeas Kshitij club in fact conducts a competition in order to
determine the best video. A poster is made for marketing activities,
the afour pasa of marketing (product, price, place and promotion) are
run through for the birthday campaign, a SWOT analysis done and finance
concepts such as portfolio and risk management discussed. Of course,
the birthday boy is given the traditional birthday bumps and a whole
lot of other people share the joys and pains of the birthday. Whew,
gone are the innocent days of simply lighting birthday cakes and
singing aHappy Birthdaya. 
Over the two days I was at GIM I visited a couple
of eating places that are popular among students. Jagguas is a regular
college haunt next to the steps leading up to 'The Morgue', the college
canteen where students often interact with faculty over meals, Geneas
the riverside bar across the road is where I had lunch on Sunday and on
Monday over a cuppa Ginger tea at Casa De Cha we had a PG meet.
Late Sunday afternoon in Goa had been peaceful,
tranquil and idyllic. When I had been preparing to leave GIM for the
day I could sense the peace and quiet all right but underlying the calm
was a buzz, a throb. The instituteas second year students were busy
preparing for final placements which commence in a week and the first
years had their end term exams starting on Wednesday. aYou know in
marketing, thereas nothing which can be labeled as awrongaa, sagely
asserts a student to a group sipping coffee and munching Maggi noodles
at Jagguas. aChalo test do!a,
a female student exclaims to a couple of others who on hearing her
scoot into the main college building. On the other hand, aI mean, itas
nice and all but Iam a bit boreda, is overheard from someone speaking
on the mobile. I had earlier taken a picture of a student standing at
the window of a study room, gazing out onto the Mandovi on which barges
gracefully glide across the waters even as students engrossed in
studies poured over their books. Life goes on at GIM. At least it does
for now.
At the PG meet at Casaas as the roadside joint is
called, a student had said, aOne of the unique aspects of GIM is that
thereas no relative grading here.a My ears perked up on hearing this
because I knew that something called RGgiri was
common at schools where students used relative grading to their
advantage so much so that they even purposefully withhold information
in order to ensure a high grade for themselves! aSo, over here people
do not think twice before helping anyone else and itas co-operation
over here and not competition as is the case at many other places.a
Well, a later conversation with a marketing professor revealed that the
institute is in fact implementing relative grading in a staggered way
in some electives from this year onwards and plans to implement it
fully in the near future. Also, the institute will be shifting to a new
scenic campus in Sanquelim in a couple of years, double seat intake by
2012 and put in place many other courses at the new location. It
remains to be seen if and how these changes will impact student life at
GIM and the culture in place here.