Before I begin with this post Id like to put a small disclaimer; this post has nothing to do with life inside GIM but its all to do with life outside GIM. 
It all began on a hectic Monday morning. It had been a month since my laptop had conked off; life had become, well, sooo un GIMish without one. No IP, no FB, no movies, no life. But now the time had come. A point in my MBA life when I decided that I couldnt be lazy. Today was the D day. I had to go to Panjim and get my laptop repaired.
Sigh... Work is always boring especially on a sunny day. Especially on a day when you are done with an ultra complicated 9:00 AM class on derivatives and another one scheduled at 4:00 PM. Phew... And the world expects me to get my laptop repaired!! 
I quickly gobbled down a black forest at Monginis, grabbed my bike keys and just as I was about to kick start my bike a miracle happened. Clouds turned up from over the mountains!! Bless them! Atleast, I wouldnt have to drive in the sun! And these did not seem like the dark rain clouds 😲 The Goan Gods seemed to be with me in my quest on that day...
So off I went chugging on though the curvy roads and green fields humming the 3 Idiots song. The traffic was minimal so I was covering a lot of ground; until I took a turn for the bridge. Catastrophe struck. One hawaldar promptly jumped(blocking my way) on the road with stick and asked me to pull over.
Hawldar(Irritated) : No helmet? Tourist? Go and meet madam there in the jeep.
Madam turned out to be Ms Alice
, police inspector with a very good handwriting in which she had begun writing down a Rs 100 chalan on me. Ah the irony of it.
Madam: Please give me your license.
Me (Giving her my college ID and acting as if I had mistakenly given it): Oh sorry maam thats my college ID. Here, this is my license.
Madam(Stops writing and looks at me) : You are a student of GIM? You live in the hostels right and where are you headed off to? No lectures today to attend?
Me(ye kya hua!!!
Chalan for skipping lectures degi kya?) : No maam. Have lectures in the evening. Am going to Panajim for my college work!
Madam(Staring at me and the ID Card) : Look Gaurav, your parents at home will be so worried! You are driving without a helmet. Do you know how many young students meet with accidents.... Advice... Advice... Advice.. I feel bad... More advice.. I do not like fining students... More advice..
Advice...Phew.. Finally done after 10 long minutes.
Madam : Ok Gaurav, I am letting you off now. (Yippie!!
). And take my name and number, in case some one else catches you today, just give me a call(I was ready to hug her, but why take chances with a PI! 
). But next time I catch you without helmet I aint letting you off!
Me: Thanks a lot maam. There wont be a next time.
So off onwards I went. The joy of having saved Rs 100 from the jaws of a traffic policeman (woman in this case) is incomparable.
Reached Panajim, deposited my laptop at HP, grabbed a quick bite at Aunty Marias and began my return journey.
I didnt want to run into Ms Alice again, lest she changed her mind. So I decided to take the ferry across the Mandovi. (For those unawares, the ferry/boat lets you and your bike cross the river for free and is an amazing experience especially for a guy from a desert like mine. The best part is when the ferry reaches the other bank when everyone prepares to disembark. Remides you of the beaching at Normandy during WWII. Especially in terms of the enthusiasm with which people disembark)
Across the river I reached the bird sanctuary, a lonely green road and a bunch of tiny school kids hoping for a ride home. It was my turn to return Ms Alices gesture; I decided to give the kids a ride home. After a bit of discussion with the kids who did not know Hindi we began our journey. The small girl promptly sat on the tank(of the bike) and two guys on the rear seat. Off we went. It was awesome, reminded me of a scene from the song School Chale Hum. The road, as is the case in Goa, was awesome and the birds and greenery mind boggling.
The kids took me through all the short cuts possible; some which cut right through farms and others almost through houses!
Dropping them off at their homes (I was offered a cooked fish in return from their mum, which I politely declined) I reached back to good old GIM and well in time for the derivates class at 4:00.
A GIM can only be possible in a state like Goa!
And Gaurav is back !!
Awesome post boy...some really spirited writing seen on this thread after a very long time...
and what better day than Diwali eve to light the thread up !!
Wishing all Boarders a VERY VERY HAPPY DIWALI !!
GauravGolwalkar Saysnext time I catch you without helmet I aint letting you off!
yeh toh sala Italian job me Jason Statham ko jo puliswali bandi mili thi...woh wala haal ho gaya :P
best part is when the ferry reaches the other bank when everyone prepares to disembark. Remides you of the beaching at Normandy during WWII.
Eggjhakly my thoughts EVERY time I disembark !! So reminds me of the saving private ryan scenes !!
On the eve of DIWALI, this is what few of the students of GIM have to say about their experiences:
And my love for GIM keeps on growing each day...thanks Razzmatazz n Prayas for the wonderful Diwali !!! 😃 :)
Yet another memorable day at GIM ...thanx to PRAYAS and RaZzMaTaZz for making Diwali so wonderful ...U guys rock !!!
PS: 1. Boys are allowed to go to ladies hostel only once a year here at GIM on the eve of DIWALI for an hour.
2. Razzmatazz is the cultural club of GIM and PRAYAS is the student welfare club of GIM.
Diwali may only be a festival of lights for most of the people in our nation but it is certainly much more then that here at GIM. You have to say this when you see a big huge family of 470 odd people celebrating it in full spirits. You just have to see the diversity in this family to realise the fact. And you dont see these states when you see this big family together on such an auspicious ocassion, coz You just see a nation.
From traditions/ puja to a ramp walk and from ethnic Indian wear to crackers -GIM's 2011 Diwali saw everything. And then you saw a big family eating and enjoying together. Diyas, lights,paper cuttings etc in girl's room and then welcome like the line says "atithi devo bhavah" made GIM look as if it was decorated like Ayodhya and as if Lord Ram has actually arrived here. Probably this is how GOd wants to celebrate Diwali at his own B School.
Another memorable day in Life@GIM.
Back after a looooooooooong hiatus.er.self-inflicted ban..er.laziness on my part. Whatever you want to call it. They say life at Bskool is tough, tiring etc etc. But believe me you have no inkling whats in store for you. Its been a month since I got back after the term break, a lot has happened at the Eagles nest (aka the Sanquelim campus) in between . Lets go in reverse orderbole to flashback.
Its mid-august, its raining as if the gods have decided to flush out the entire earth from the galaxy. You are sitting in your room, contemplating, whether you should start studying for midterms or finish the HIMYM series first. You weigh in your options and you decide Barneys man (read women) management skills are more important than reading about what Pavlov did with/to his dog or what the hell a Chinese man along with a French woman was doing in a Blue Ocean. So, you watch merrily, till your eyes start abusing you. You sleep at 4 am, wake up at 8:30 am, swipe attendance at 8:45 am, grab the last bench and start waiting for the executionerer.I mean professor. You are sitting, your eyes as big as an owl, staring intensely towards the Prof, nodding at fixed intervals. Suddenly the whole class is quiet, you are still nodding your head, u hear a faint noise What is the example of stealth positioning? what do you do? You nod. The person sitting next to you kicks you Dude, hes asking you a question, why the hell are you nodding? Suddenly the outline of the classroom becomes clearer. You mutter something The Prof cracks some joke about students sleeping in the class, You are still sleepingyou curse him in your sleep and promise yourself next time am gonna show him.
Enough of my blabbering, moving on to September, its still raining.even more heavily..every now and then you get mails of lost umbrellas, slippers and what not. September is the end term month; you scamper around, submissions, presentations, book reviews, quizzes. Its the all hell loose month. Sleep deprived, you hit the local bar with vengeance a week before the end terms. The next morning you promise yourself two things: a) next seven days m gonna study like anything b) m not drinking again. You look at the exam time table, two exams in a day. You chuckle at the cruel turn of events, even PGP office has a sense of humour. You decide nothing can be done now, next term m gonna kill it. You get tortured in the exams repeatedly, day after day. You repeat your promise after every exam next term m gonna kill it. It suddenly dawns upon you, the term is over and you have managed past it, without any physical and mental damage (academic part is still awaited). Three months at GIM and you feel like you are half Goan. You scoff at tourists, start loving the rains, love the lazy elegance of the place. You can name all the beaches in ascending order. The narrow winding roads of Goa nestled with trees take you to a different place altogether.
These three months at GIM have been a revelation; a Bskool changes you, for your own good. People who embrace this change are a happy lot but people who resist.well they are still happy but not content. When you look around yourself, you see friends, you see people who are with you 24X7, a sense of familiarity ascends on you. What is the spirit of GIM??? What makes it diferent from other colleges?? Perhaps its a difficult question to answer, but believe me, when you ask this question to anybody associated with GIM, the smile tells it all..
Flashback continues in the next post.
Later
Recipe for an awesome Diwali :
Preparation Time: 1 Week (several meetings/parcels/items needed)
Cooking Time: 7 Hours, on Diwali (from 1900 hours to 0200 the next morning )
Servings: Roughly 470 people but more can be accommodated
Ingredients
RaZzMaTaZz 12 tablespoons
Prayas 14 pieces
Decorations To taste
Fireworks In abundance
Traditional attire A sprinkle
A tad of fashion, a good helping of sweets, lights galore, musical beats
Mix and stew in GIM spirit for a while and serve piping hot!!!
For the uninitiated and unaware, RaZzMaTaZz is the cultural club of Goa Institute of Management and Prayas is the welfare club. Together they put together an evening that was simply fantastic. The festival started off with a puja in the Multipurpose hall. This was followed by a fashion show that showcased the beauty that only India can boast of with amazing choreography and innovation to boot.
Diwali night is special in the GIM campus as it marks the only evening that the boys are allowed to visit the girls hostels. So naturally the girls go out of their way to decorate and clean (even the fans are sparkling!) for the impending visits. There is effectively 3 hours of chaos in the hostels where everybody is trying to visit everybody!!!
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a video worth? Heres a sneak peek into the festivities and furore at the girls hostel in GIM on Diwali - Konnect2GIM: GIM and the Festival of lights
The celebrations continued well into the night with photographs, music and dance! A late night firework show is the last official item on the agenda with the general populace hoping that there are no submissions for the following days and probably too tired, exhausted and happy to care anyway!
Now you would ask why the hell am I posting this on life at GIM thread...
Well that is because my passion and obsession for Metallica started in GIM...
and eventually when the gods of rock did come to pull their maiden gig on Indian soil, it was because of the career boost given by GIM did I really have the time and money to go and fulfill my dream !!
It is a long story...lots of things are connected toe ach other...but if you really like to believe that there is a fate, that there is a god...do read on...
Sep 2008, GIM
A blank multicast with an attachment mysteriously named "Death Magnetic" popped up on my computer one rainy september evening. It was send by a PGP 2 metalhead called Ravish Bhasin.
I opened and just like you flit thorugha new hindi film album, i went through the opening riffs of a few songs.
One song with a piano opening just caught my attention...it was Unforgiven 3.
From then on, I was hooked. For the next one week, every waking hour, the only song which I heard on my Ipod was Unforgiven 3.
As a quizzer when I like something, I read about it.
I knew about Metallica...but that was about it. I had never heard them. But after Death Magnetic I did lot of research on the band...and soon found out that their magnum opus was a album called "Master of Puppets"...
and from then on it was an obsession. One, Sanitarium, Master of Puppets...and then later Seek and Destroy...For whom the bell tolls...
I just fell in love with every major concert darling song...
I read more about the tragic end of the great Cliff burton...and heard Orion, his historic bass solo...and I was simply blown away...
For more than a month, only Orion played in my ears...
And mind you all this while, I was not a rock Fan at all. i want known as much of a rock fan...but I only listened to Metallica...and only 13 of their songs.
I was very fond of making birthday videos and every birthday video I made for my friends till date had generous amounts of Metallica in it...
My love for Metallica reached to the point where I took "Life at Times of Rock band Metallica" as my topic for the Goa Mastermind Quiz.
When I passed out of GIM...I made a promise to myself that someday, I will go and watch Metallica when they perform ANYWHERE within the range...be it middle east or south east asia...
I set aside 3 months of my income for it...well I cannot prove it. but well you gotto take my word it.
August 2011, Mumbai
I got an morning phonecall from GIM Batchmate Harshit Bhutani who asked if I wanted him to book the tickets for the Gurgaon concert !!
I was ecstatic and asked him to book it without even asking the ticket prices !!
Unfortunately, he could not do so due to a computer glitch !!
I was crestfallen...and by the the Bangalore tickets too were open and I had no hope of getting any tickets.
A few hours later an old friend from Goa Adish Talwadker messaged me on FB asking if I was going to the Bangalore concert cos he was booking the tickets which were still available !!!! There is definitely a god !!
28th Oct, 2011, Mumbai
I changed into a Metallica T Shirt in office and took the train from Sanpada to Vile Parle from where I took a auto to the Mumbai Airport.
My flight was at 9 : 30 and by then my cell phone was abuzz with messages about cancellation of the Gurgaon gig and dark clouds over the BANGALORE one !!
Will it be the song thatw as playing in my ears at that time..."the day that never comes"
With the greatest dream of my life on the verge of shattering to bits, I stood in front of the Airport gates..contemplating should I cancel my air tickets and bank my losses...
and just then the lines from nothing else matters played on my player...
"Trust I seek and I find in you...
every day for us something new"...
and i decided to take my leap of faith...I walked through that door and gave my ticket to the CISF dude.
With Guragaon plan cancelled and BLR gig in darkness...I boarded the Air India flight and said hullo to the aunties on Board !!
At that time there was news that Bangalore Gig might be pushed to 31st...and had a ticket back home for 31st...
Upon landing at the Banaglore airport the first thing I did was to have my ticket extended to 1st at a huge cost and informed my bosses that Id be gone one more day...(And ppl say Rock fans are bloody truants !!!)
Once in Banaglore I enjoyed the hospitality of coworker Syed Saqi and his roomie Sandeep who welcmoed me into their spacious Kormangala home where I while away 29th of November.
Come 30th November I reached Palace grounds where I fullfilled what was a long held dream..
and the rock of gods did not disappoint...
Creeping death, Enter Sandman, One, Sanitarium, Nothing Else matters and encore of Seek and Destroy...
It was all looking like a dream...that Id just be snapped out of it...
Cos I had had many high definition colour dreams about attending Metallica concerts and often was unsure if I was dreaming...
Many a mosh pits were getting created near me..and even though the smoke from a pot joint being smoked by an exceptionally pretty Manipuri chick was making my head lighter, I was not delusional enough to enter one :P
The concert ended and we made our way back home....
I spent one more beautiful day in the Garden City and Finally on the evening of 1st...I took the red bus back to Bangalore Airport...I could help but look longingly as it passed the palace grounds...hoping Metallica would come again...
And as I sit in my room and pen this memoir, it fills me with great pride and satisfaction, that a addiction, an obsession...a dream born in a dorm room in GIM after recieving one random IP, has become the source of so much happiness for me...
I missed the ticket to Gurgaon for good reason...
I did the quiz in Goa so Adish knew I was a Metallica fan and he booked them for me
The gig didnt get cancelled or go ahead...
and I came back safely !! My god did not fail me !!
Long Live GIM and Long Live Metallica !!!!!
Short video depicting Life@GIM in the new campus(now two years old actually!)Link : The way my day goes at GIM | PaGaLGuY.com - India's biggest website for MBA in India, International MBA, CAT, XAT, SNAP, MAT
OR see the video at : Konnect2GIM: At GIM the day is as long as you want it to be...
huh.... the learning is coming out from there...... Its so good.. "My opinion is completely different from my group members on the slide"..... i love it.... I am borrowing it from you for my other presentations.
I don't know if it can be related with Life @ GIM or not.
But it was a memorable day for me today.
As i watched Sehwag scoring 219 in the common room of my hostel at GIM. We all shouted just like we had done for India when we won world cup. The shout roared to the ears of those who were not watching the match and the common room was soon house full :)
The atmosphere was electric..
Hope to see some more records in the next 1.5 years of stay at GIM.
Five terms are down, exams are done and its December in Goa, its time to sit and relax. Enjoy the watery sun and misty mornings and the dew tipped lawn. Basically it is the first time in my MBA life where I can be completely Vella:biggrin:. It is also one of those times that makes me all nostalgic and reflect. Reflect on the amazing 20 months I have had here.
I still remember my first day at GIM. Tlaloc (God of rain) had unleashed his fury on Goa; the Mandovi was brimming and every possible critter known to man had come to life. There, after a tired hectic wet morning (which involved a lot of travelling); I had sat eating a hot bun omlette in a cramped shop called Jaggus Den. The feeling even in that cramped shop surrounded by vending machine, coke bottles, chips, biscuits and lots and lots of Maggie, was that of a conqueror who had conquered mount K2. Finally I had made it to GIM.
That was 20 months ago, a long time in the course of an MBA. Little did I know then that on that day fate had chosen me to be among the 60 lucky ones who would get a chance to stay at the old campus. A chance to become an integral part of the history of GIM. One of the few students who will ever get to say that they were among the last batch to stay at GIM Ribandar and first to stay at Sanquelim. The ones to witness the metamorphosis of GIM and be a part of it. The few who would carry the idea that was and is GIM from Ribandar to Sanquelim.
Today as I sit here, I can very confidently say that we have succeeded. The essence that was/is GIM was carried from the banks of the Mandovi to the mountains of Sanquelim. Of course OT, Morgue, LH have given way to H1, H2,H3; the old Portugese hospital has given way to state of art facilities and a lot of similar physical changes have happened. But as the sharp edges of the newly constructed buildings wear out, as nature reclaims in part what is hers, the campus gets its GIM feeling back.
The pillars that shape and form GIM have remained the same. Steve with his luxurious mustache and quiet persona, Jenny with her ever sweet voice and patience, Ashlyn and her time tables and Mukesh and his servers. They all remain the same. Even today folks flock Jaggu for an evening cup of tea or run to Kailash for a glass of juice. The evening chatter from the banks of the river has moved to the mountains of Sanquelim. The rides to Fidalgo have grown longer and so have the night time adventures.
So as I sit back here, I am starting to comprehend that GIM is not just a beautiful building by the Mandovi or on top of mountain. There is something more to it. The umbilical cord from the one room college in 93 may have broken on the face of it; but even today the essence that is GIM thrives. As a matter of fact it has grown from 39 to 240. An unspoken bond connects these generations of GIMians. That is saying something about us GIMians and our culture. Prof Chirsto will agree.
Disclaimer: Never let your mind become as vella as mine has become now. It will definitely lead to a lot of weird posts on Life @ GIM.:nono:
Beautiful Post Gaurav !!
The metamorphosis has indeed happened.. n what a transformation it has been..
Looking at the majestic Sanquelim Campus now, only makes me happy . Happy because we are moving ahead with time, Happy bcoz the pillars of strength are still with us and Happy bcoz Be it the Hills of Sanquelim or the riverside Ribander, the GIM spirit still carries on ...
I don't know if it can be related with Life @ GIM or not.
But it was a memorable day for me today.
As i watched Sehwag scoring 219 in the common room of my hostel at GIM. We all shouted just like we had done for India when we won world cup. The shout roared to the ears of those who were not watching the match and the common room was soon house full :)
The atmosphere was electric..
Hope to see some more records in the next 1.5 years of stay at GIM.
Hey what you are talking about is indeed an integral part of Life at GIM. :-)
This reminds me of the moment in the World Cup Football final, when Iniesta scored the decider for Spain against the Dutch and the entire crowd erupted as one ..
What a game it was !!!
The high fives , the high pitch screams, the boos , the nailbiting tension. It was just awesome..
Is there any better way to watch sports ? Hell no !!!
I don't know if it can be related with Life @ GIM or not.
But it was a memorable day for me today.
As i watched Sehwag scoring 219 in the common room of my hostel at GIM. We all shouted just like we had done for India when we won world cup. The shout roared to the ears of those who were not watching the match and the common room was soon house full :)
The atmosphere was electric..
Hope to see some more records in the next 1.5 years of stay at GIM.
sorry to disturb u seniors but i have a query..
can we still apply to gym thru CMAT?
sorry to disturb u seniors but i have a query..
can we still apply to gym thru CMAT?
At least post in the required thread.
There is a helpdesk thread running for 2012-14 batch : http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/goa-institute-of-management-admissions-2012-14-helpdesk-25072285
And Registration now stands closed. You cannot apply to GIM through CMAT now.
A Chapter in G.I.M culture !!
Visit the above link and discover an eminent chapter in G.I.M Culture. A Live musical fusion concert by professionals. . ! ! !
Regards
What an evening it was. The music enthralled each and everyone present in the amphitheater. It was truly mesmerizing. What else can you expect when you have Gino banks with the drums, Sheldon D'souza on strings, Satyajit Talwalkar on tabla, Ravi Chari on Sitar and Sangeet Haldipur with the Keyboard.
It seemed as if the world around has stopped and along with it have vanished all the problems. Its only the music which is around, with everyone enjoying it to the fullest.
Well, the day started with the normal CSR trip to Old Goa, just besides the Basilica of Bom Jesus. A big advantage of being a student at GIM is the fact that, every now and then you get to see things which people yearn to see once in their life and the Old Goa Church is just one of them. There we taught kids from std. 3 and 4 as a part of our CSR project. As of now I am very sure about the learning the kids might be getting from our teaching but am very sure about the learning we are getting our CSR project. Teaching kids can indeed be a learning experience itself.:)
Finishing off with the CSR work we rushed back to the college. This was the first time the PGP1s attended Inception and not to say they along with the PGP2s ,they were very excited. The program started with an enthralling performance from the GIM band. It was then followed up by many awesome performances one after the other. As the director mentioned during his mini speech it was amazing to see the amount of talent on display.
Then started the big performances. Ravi Chari just wound everyone in his musical spell. As did every other maestro present over there. My favourite was the musical conversation between Gino's drums and Satyajit's Tabla. It left everyone spellbound to say the least. After all the stupendous performances we had Lazy Lamhe girl Anusha Mani winding the show up.
There are things in life which people want to keep in their hearts all their life. For all the GIM students GIM culture is just one of these ,and this evening was a just a part of it.
As they say its not just a culture, its indeed a way of life.
People say you need not travel the whole world to get the different tastes of food.. You can just travel india from North to South and from east to west to get each and every taste you want...
But after coming to GIM i feel why travelling for food to various parts of the country when you get each and every taste within the same shed sometime or other..
Durga Pooja, Sangamam, Ganesh Chaturthi ,Diwali, Inception, Goan food festival etc etc.. just give sometime here and witness the Incredible india coming together 😃
On Saturday 18th February, we had a highly unusual guest lecturer. Mr. Sivanandan, the top cop from Mumbai police give a lecture on corruption and its extensive penetration in the public domain in India. The top cops role played by Malayalam superstar Mohanlal in the Hindi film Company is believed to have been inspired by Mr. Sivanandan.
He was also the man who prepared the draft of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, and who had successfully investigated the IC 814
Kandahar hijack links in Mumbai.
He has served in various departments in Mumbai police (from being a superintendent of police in the intelligence department to immigration) and has been credited with its computerization post 1993. He took up the position of joint commissioner of police (crime) in 1998 when underworld gang violence was at an all-time high in Mumbai.
The students were in awe of such a grand personality and all the initial inhibitions in contributing to the interaction were overcome by the fact that he was very forthcoming and an ardent speaker. His talk encapsulated the importance of getting the public domain and the society largely rid of corruption for Indias growth and development and to give us a competitive advantage over other countries. All the students were enraptured by the speaker and his experiences and anecdotes.
Im happy that Ribandar talks invites a wide variety of speakers for its talks and does not only restrict itself to the corporate world. Supply chain managers and marketing gurus provide a very valuable lessons for management students but a speaker like sivanand provides invaluable lessons for everyone.
This was one talk I will remember all my life.
hi guys,
Posting on this forum after hell of a time!
I keep getting update through Facebook. The latest update was from V.Gopal asking for some insurance help!
So how is the new campus treating you? How is the band culture? hope the junior batches are getting inculcated with the GIM Anthem which we had composed and sung for the first time way back in 2007-08.
What has been the cut-off this year?
how were placements?
Keep me posted. I'll try to pour in more regularly
Cheers 
Peace