It has been quite some time since I last visited this thread. This time, it has been altogether a different phase on PG. Last year, we were helped by Jatin, Ruchir and CO as we were the aspirants of GIM. We tried to maintain the legacy this time 
GIM is almost finished with the GD/PI Process today for the XAT applicants. There will be few CMAT applicants interviewed at latter part of this month. And few of us were very busy answering the queries and helping the puys. I hope we lived upto their expectations and will keep doing so in the coming few months.
While I write all this, Razzmatazz is preparing for the Farewell Party 
to be given to our senior batch. They are becoming very emotional which is quite obvious due to the time that they had there. They are def going to miss these amazing 2 yrs of time spent. The batch of 2012 will be remembered as the pioneer batch of Sanquelim campus. Hats off to them for the way they sustained themselves. Everyone will agree to me after they see the pics of campus of that time (July-2010). All the best 
2012 Batch for your future times. We know you all will make us proud wherever you go :cheerio:
Tough time coming for us in the coming weeks as we have presentations, assignments, projects, end-term exams, compre viva,
etc.. all lined up one by one. Hope to finish things on a good note.
Bye Bye for now...
Circa June 2008
The fact that MECCA was the most prestegious Club in GIM did not matter...
The fact that every self proclaimed marketing bond dreamt of making it to what was considered the coolest club to be in didnt matter either...
For a minute, I was tempted to give up my shot at occupying what was the most coveted Core Committee positions in GIM...
As per policy, a MECCA JCC could not dream of representing GIM at WIZBIZ.
Organised every year by the Marketing Club of GIM, MECCA, WIZBIZ is one of the finest corporate Quizzes in India, which combined with the charm of being conducted in one of the world's most exotic tropicaL paradise, attracts quiz aficionados frm far and wide.
Finally, under the erroneous belief that being in the finest club will help you score the finest chicks, I enlisted for the selection process.
As luck would have it, I got through and with the privilege of being a MECCA Core Committee Member, went out of the Window my glorious dream of walking into the Wizbiz Areana pitting myself against the very best...
It was of little consolation that my Quiz partner Ms Pooja Kamath made it to the GIM team by beating a field of 30 quizzers in the internal GIM trials in 2010.
But as Iron Maiden declares in the "Wicker Man"....your time will come...I waited for mine to come...
I could never participate in Wizbiz as a student because Mecca rules barred me from doing it, so I vowed to pay my way into the participant list when I became a corporate myself...
These were stormy times to be in a B School ....when economic blizzards were blowing across the world and corporations were tumbling like ninepins...
Sometimes there were serious doubts on even landing a job in those times...
Not landing a job would have had serious repurcussions...like neither being eligible to find hot chicks (which I anyway could not find despite being in Mecca 😛 😛 ) nor participate in WIZBIZ !!
Luckily enough, I did land up a job selling soap and even before my first paycheque, I dreamt of being at WIZBIZ !!
But fate had other plans, my first Wizbiz as a corporate was spent in a dinghy hotel room in Nashik, Maharashtra as I struggled to sort out market coverage issues in khandeish region...
Undeterred, I continued to dream on...next time, I am gonna make it.
And make it I did !!
Dreams too have a guilty conscience. U dream a dream long enough, and it is emabarrassed into becomeing a reality.
The date was fixed for 25th Feb and I had to be on travel in Gujarat till 24th Feb. But such was the junoon that i did not hesitate in paying a huge chunk of my monthly income to be strapped to fiery metallic bird that streaks thorugh the sky at more than 2/3 the speed of sound, TWICE...to reach Goa!!!
My partner in crime was Ashwin Kak, who had himself cooped up in a metal canister on wheels which tore the tar of NH 17 at breakneck space below !
Once in Goa after two planes, 3 airports and a Cab ride later, we focussed our attention on doing well in Wizbiz...
Never had a I faced any pressure in any Quiz. So much that the night before TATA CRUCIBLE I was going around Panjim eating Pizza at 3 am in the night...
But WIZBIZ was different...and our only goal was NOT to come LAST among the prelims participants.
A lot of interesting things happened in the prelude to the Quiz, the most memorable one being asked by Ashwin to find someone's name and relationship status...
And being a good quizzer I enquired for the info from the most reliable source....a guy who happened to be her boyfriend !!!
bringing Ashwin, a master quiz setter, to a quiz of this stature, was bringing an ace Gunsmith to a gunbattle...but all my apprehensions were gone when he bulldozed through multiple bouncers in the prelims with considerable elan...
The Master swordmaker was a Ninja himself !!!
Anyway, our team, named Bhains Ki Ankh, which actually stands for The Buffallo's eye, did pretty well and there was very less chance of coming last !!
But Buffalo's eyes had hit the bullseye when it was announced as one of the top 6 teams to have made it to the final round !!
To walk on the stage, amid loud applause for what was considered the GIM home team now...was one of the most surreal moments of my life.
Ashwin claims that for him it will feature in the music video on your life which plays in front of your eyes right before u pop off !!
I will refrain from giving u our standing in the finals because that will furthur diminish my chances of finding the hot chicks whom I have been searching since 2008, but I can assure you that we gave some "REALLY GOOD ANSWERS" :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
Ashwin has declared this to be a phase 1 of his 5 year plan to win wizbiz which means that he will come 4th next year and then third the next...and finally win the grand prize !
Post the quiz the night was dedicated to Bakar under the starlit sky with our Mecca buddies and understanding the effects of the bottle of wine won at the Quiz on human nervous system by experimenting on our in house sommelier Mr Shreye Mehtani, who once happened to be somewhere near a wine club so he is now an authority.
Shreye Mehntani is also an authority on Automobile repair and Black magic because he can cool an overheated engine with the help of chilled beer !! but thats a story I will save for ome other time !!
A day later we were back strapped to our wheeled tin cans, to be thorwn back into the infernos of our jobs....but the dream will live on and we shall be back...
Long live Wizbiz
Long LiVe MECCA !!
VIVA GIM !!!!
Goa is in the south of India but i hardly see anyone from southern India :). Is it so? Many north Indians.!!!!
RogerUnderwrite SaysGoa is in the south of India but i hardly see anyone from southern India :). Is it so? Many north Indians.!!!!
We have students from all corners of the country and that too in balanced proportion.
And so we celebrate all the festivals of India : Janmashtmi, Holi, Diwali, Eid, Onam, Pongal, Sanghmam, Durga Puja, Christmas, Ganesh Puja, etc..
Because of students from all parts of the country, we don't have any specific regional culture here and we have our own GIM Culture.
RogerUnderwrite SaysGoa is in the south of India but i hardly see anyone from southern India :). Is it so? Many north Indians.!!!!
I always thought (and geography in school said so) Goa is in the west coast.
It is definitely south of Maharashtra but that does not mean that it is in South
Cheers!
8:00 : Alarm rings. It is stopped and back to sleep.
8:10 : Room mate wakes you up. And you realise why you decided to do MBA at all.
8:20 : You finally wake up. You rush to the *** but everything is already occupied.
8:40 : Only 5 minutes left, you will have to miss breakfast now or take a risk of reaching class late.
8:47 : Lucky if you are allowed to get inside as well as get attendance. Classes start from 8:45.
The time passes very slowly inside the class. If you are sleepy, you won't be able to sleep because of either profs or some students who will always be active in class.
10:15 : Classes over. You have a 10 minutes break. You rush for breakfast if you missed in morning.
10:25 : Next class. This time, nothing stops you from sleeping.
11:55 : Class over. You rush for coffee or may be collect some reading material which prof talked of in the class.
12:05 : Next class. You feel like bunking all the next classes now even if you have to loose your grades.. 😛
13:35 : Lunch Time. People discussing about some test which was conducted in some other section. You eat very less and start browsing the PPT of that subject.
14:15 : You realise that there is no test. It was only a surprise test in other section.
15:45 : Classes over.
16:00 : Group Meeting. Few of them would say you are not contributing much. So this time you do most of the task.
17:00 : You reach room. You see your room mate studying for next day's presentation. You too start reading, at least for few minutes.
17:30 : You open Outlook/FB. You see that there is a GBM at 2200. GBM is the General Body Meeting.
17:40 : Message for Football/Volleyball/Cricket/TT on IP.
17:45 : Finally you decide to leave room even though you have lots of work pending.
18:30 : You are having Juice at Kailash. Someone is discussing about an assignment to be submitted next day.
18:45 : You rush to your room for completing the assignment.
20:00 : Assignments not completed. You chuck it. Start doing FB.
20:30 : Discussions on dinner.
20:40 : Group mate of one of the subjects calls you and says a case study has ben uploaded. You have to read that and go to class next day.
21:20 : You start reading the case.
22:00 : GBM. You hear all sorts of rules and regulations for the coming event.
23:00 : Another group meeting
00:00 : Meeting ends after a lot of brain storming
00:01 : There is a birthday celebration going on. You jump for snatching a part of cake.
00:20 : You start making a PPT for presenting in the class next day.
01:00 : FB/IP
01:30 : Tea at Cafeteria
02:30 : Friends in your room and you can't sleep. Some discussions on Case Study for the next day.
03:30 : You don't want to sleep as you know the next day is again going to be full of classes.
04:00 : You fall asleep by default.
Throughout human history, men have been judged by what they possess...
In the medieval times, it was the women they owned, the harems they maintained...
In the current times, they have been replaced by a modern allegory to women, prized two wheeled beauties...(and a post on women of my batchmates would be in very bad taste anyway)
So this post is about the lovestories of my batchmates with their machines...
and like women, they may not be exactly perfect, yet, their men were so completely besotted to them that it made for a spercute love story...
RAW POWER - Gaurav Makol and his classic enfield...
Maintained in tip top condition, no enfield could have hoped for a better consort than the ever affable punjabi munda Gaurav Makol who dreamt of buying an enfield all his life...and got to buy one when he started earning. In my whole two years I never saw anyone else astride the classic balck machine, though the same cannot be said for the pillon :P
CHINESE PULSAR - Harshit Bhutani and his modified goddess !
What would you call a round headlamp 1999 Bajaj Pulsar which has been raised several inches from ground to resemble a dirtbike and its owner rides it in the goa rain without a mudguard? Well...you won't be in a position to say anything once you hear the "kind words" from the guy who sat pillon on that ride !! Lovingly Christened "Basanti" by Harshit's roomie Prasenjit, , though the bike was devoid of any branding spawining speculation that it was actually a Chinese copy of the Pulsar, called Gulsar, yet the bike had an annual maintenance budget which was higher than the defence budget of six sub saharan countries combined !
Pawanputra - Anuj Agarwal and the Moss Green Monstress...
Anuj "Hotel California/Pawanputra" Agarwal, always recounted the stories of hitting 130 on the causeway by pushing the 220 cc engine of his moss green charisma...if he had done it while being sober that is. In his opinion, the speed was of no use, if the consumption of fuel was not matched by the quantum of the outflow of tears from his female pillon...few of whome ever dared to return as his pillon ! Anuj was banned from riding to razzie parties by an unanimous vote at a GBM which was called especially for the purpose !
The Sex Appeal of Animal Prints - Prabodh Bhai and the vintage Splendour !
For a third hand bike which was bougt for a 4 digit sum in Chattisgarh, Prabodh Bhai's bike had quite a few achievements to its name, one of which being able to bring him and me safely, during night, from Ponda ghat while its headlamp was little more than a glowing filament. But the splendour of this splendid splendor lied not what was not visible during the night (is the headlamps) but in what set it apart from the crowd in the day. Adorned with a white tigerskin seat cover, Prabodh Bhai bike SEAT made a style statement which was far stronger than its chassis which spent half its days at the welder in Ribandar !
Sherry Sandhu - Less is More - Bajaj Pulsar
In an era of sleeveless blouses and backless cholis Sherry Sandhu inaugerated the concept of brakeless bikes...as was painfully demonstrated by many of the bike borrowers, who realised this speciality once they were just a few metres from a wall. While in other circumstances, there is lot of pleasure in traversing the sapce between "the point of no return: and the end...but not so when you are on this bike feverishly squeezing the brakes and instantly turning into a believer from a nastik !! This bike shared its keyhole with many a Pulsar from its generation and was taken away more than once by people who mistook this beauty as their own !!!
2 years on, While I run out of memories to post, I am sure, with a little bit of help from imagination...I would never be short of fuel for a quick vroom down a memory lane...
Miss u GIM !!!!
Cheers
Snape
To understand the true worth of Life@GIM, I think we need to step out of the heaven. 1 month into my internship at Thomson Reuters at Bangalore has been enough to make me realise the true worth of our abode for the last year.
Rewind (1 year back): Having cracked Infosys and Wipro, I had a more or less settled life. A not so decent salary, but just enough. A fresh pass out of a mediocre engineering college should not expect more. But I was not happy. Not just because of the salary, but because life would have become very monotonous had I joined any of the companies. And the kind of person I am, I just cant live much like that. A bad final year at college, bad break up and everything related to them just got me a little more motivated to work for a b-school. And suddenly I got that call from GIM, prepared my donkey out for it and converted (even though it was from the waitlist). The journey however began well before the final conversion mail. It began the day I got my GD/PI call. Names like Jatin, Varun, Ruchir became household names. My parents almost thought they belong to the management of GIM. Ironically we just came home after watching Dum Maaro Dum and I converted.
The real journey started then. From PG, the discussion shifted to google groups(a feature thats missing this year) and then to FB. By that time we had already started googling GIM and started finding out every possible bit of info on GIM. From placements to food, from rains to hostel, the enthusiasm of collecting those information at times gives you more high than a couple of pegs of scotch(on empty stmach!!!). Videos of Pax(an alumnus) on Youtube, city meets, running all around my home city to get the basic things like the suit, lappy all done was too much fun. It did mean that my association with Kolkata and all the people residing in there (specially my friends) will come to a halt. But then my friends were also moving out gradually and I knew we all will have to move on. Kolkata is not a place to build a career. Every day some senior would allow us access to their profiles and we would get charmed by the pics. Inertia, Samriddhi, club information all started pouring in gradually.
I arrived a couple of days before my admission at Goa with my family. And what did Goa greet us with? Sun? Sand? Beaches? Booze? Nah. RAIN. Torrential rain. Rain that doesnt stop. Rain that cannot be defeated just with those small umbrellas we use at our hometown. First thing I did at Panjim(we stayed there for a couple of days) was to buy one of those huge grandfather umbrellas. And the service it rendered me is inexplicable. It did die in the end, not being able to withstand more than 4 months of torrential rain and wind but till the last day it served its master(masters to b specific, so many ppl used it).
Admission day: Rain again. Little Johnny(not Prof.Balas Johnny though, we just love that Johnny and Prof.Balas classes) would never study in GIM even if he is offered a 16 LPA job before completing the course. It took us quite a bit of a time to actually understand where we will have to go for admissions. We ultimately figures out the academic block and found myself being placed in section A. Got myself registered, paid the RFID amount and then began the frantic search for a roomie and a room. Scanned through the section list..........Kapil Sheth.......Gave him a call. He agreed to be my roomie. Just met him for one day before. I had only his number among all people from my section. He agreed. He came. He registered. And we stood in the line. Bonded with a hell lot of people in the line for rooms only and finally, though we didnt get our first choice room, we got a pretty decent room in the end, facing the mountains!!!!! And there we were room 2115, Kapil and me. This guy turned out to be much more cool and adjusting than I had expected and one awesome roomie I had. (Suggestion to PGP1s : never think much into choosing a roomie, just go with someone, both do end up adjusting and both will end up having a great year too).
Fast Forward(at office) : Its lunch time. Nostalgia is getting the better of me. I think further posts should happen later. I really need to start working now before they decided to block PG!!!
Posting on this thread after exactly 414 days since I parted ways with GIM. Though LIFE@GIM has become a way of life now.
During the last 414 days I got a chance to visit "God's Own B-School" thrice.
First The alumni meet was the perfect occasion to reconnect with seniors, batchmates and juniors, and also meet some new faces who are going to be the torch bearers of GIM. Having seeing the Sanquelim campus as it was in June 2010 ( like a war torn site) turning into a beautiful lush green world class facility in August 2011 was a moment of pride. Those 3 days were pure bliss with Monsoons in Goa in their fullest flow. After coming from cities with 8 lane wide roads and concrete jungles, the narrow coconut tree dotted roads of Goa were nothing short of heaven. For three days the mobile was switched off, the mind was let free and the beer was flowing round the clock.
My second visit to the land of beautiful beaches and susegaad life was on 26th Feb, 2012. Any one who has even been in GIM would know the last saturday of the shortest month is the Biggest event at GIM. WIZBIZ-The annual corporate quiz was the reason this time I returned to GIM. Having organized WIZBIZ for 2 years, participating in it this time was an achievement for me (though I knew I will be the last in qualifier round). So after presenting the 5 year plan to the CEO in Mumbai on 25th evening, I took a decision to go to Goa and straight went to the bus stand from office and boarded the first bus to Goa. Without any luggage, without informing anyone my heart just forced me to go to Goa at the drop of a hat. So next morning I reach the beautiful city of Panjim, called up the fellow Mad-Man Ashwin kak to find his whereabouts, had a nice breakfast at LOB and headed straight to GIM, Sanquelim. We deliberately chose the longest route to go to Sanquelim only coz on this Road was the building which for us was more beautiful than the Taj Mahal, Santa Casa De Misericordia aka GIM, Ribandar Campus. The parking was empty, the classes were vacant and the corridors were quite, but still every corner of the campus was telling a story. So after spending some time at the place that was home for 2 years me & mad-man set course for the hilly drive to sanquelim, where we were to rendezvous with the legendary Severus Snape aka ot8ajha. On reaching sanquelim we were surprised with the hospitality of our dear MECCA team which had 2 rooms booked for 3 (almost useless) alumni of GIM. For us mango people who were used to staying in rooms at Ribandar campus, the guest house was nothing short of a Presidential Suite of Marriott. After taking a tour of the new campus and meeting old and new faces it was time for WIZBIZ, and I can safely say this was the biggest WIZBIZ till date with the team "bhains ki aankh" who came with a mission of not coming last landed up in the finals .
So after winding up the third WIZBIZ of my life it was time for some pure unadulterated (well almost) bakar with the MECCA family.
The next day was spent with some of the most amazing members of the MECCA family in panjim and finally boarded the iron bird back to Mumbai :banghead:
My third visit to Goa was in April, this time for official purpose of organizing the Annual Sales conference of my Company. Given my vast experience of places around Goa and WIZBIZ i was sent 3 days before the event to set up things, and it was like organizing the third WIZBIZ with 100 times the money :clap:
After the conference was over I had a few hours to spare before my flight back to Mumbai, so I took a Kadamba bus from Majorda to Ribandar and landed at the Holy Gates of GIM, Ribandar. This time around the campus had some activity with few PGP-1 students staying there for their summers.
All three trips were very different from each other but they had one thing common- A drive on Causeway.
All the three times I was driving on the Causeway and on each trip the time used to slow down on the 4km stretch. The 2 years at GIM used to flash in front of the watery eyes on that 4km stretch.
As I always say GIM is not a B-School, it is a way of LIFE.
Cheers and adios till my next trip to Goa (which shall be soon indeed )
And what better timing of the post.. the post started the Page no 110 of this thread and co-incidently my roll number at GIM was 2009110
Mehtani...
yaar tum bhi bina soche samjhe aise post daal dete ho !!
Ab main itna senti jo ho gaya iska kya karoge?
Abhi ke abhi Brio Nikalo !!! via Pune Goa chalo !!!!
Ur Brio is getting hijacked when the Mecca presentation happens for the new batch !!
Awesome post yaar...aansoo aa gaye !
Since I started following this thread was waiting to see the wonderful life of GIM... campus, hostel, academic blocks, greenery everywhere, RAIN, MPH...everything I see is amazing and I could relate each n every experience to the posts in thread.
When I thought to post about these 5 days in GIM whatever I could recall is already mentioned in other posts, let it be Orientation, Hostel allocation lines, registration process, rains, carrying luggage to rooms, meeting so many people with whom I used to interact via facebook for more than a month, hitting beaches and waterfall, boozes, section allotment, groups allotment for foundation course...everything. But I must say I am already in love with the place with G.I.M. \m/
Now waiting for senior batch to come on 18, also foundation course classes are also starting on same day but yes we got this saturday off so this whole weekend we are free. Looking forward to cover many places in these two days !
Been 3 years since we started the GIM life.... 15th June 2009... the day lives of 120 people changed forever... cheers to the batch of 2009-11
Coming back to this thread after a long long time. It's been over a month now since we (PGP2's now) came back to campus after a long long gap because of Summer Internships based at locations spread across the nation. And we are already again in love with our college. The gap was so long that I could miss the life @ GIM even at my home. The most missing thing was the bike rides and I am happy that after coming here, the rides are back.
My first reaction after coming back to college on 18th June was that is it the same college I was studying. The campus has become even more beautiful. And with rains and greenry all around, you can't ask for anything more. There was one more change in the campus. I could see new faces (all filled with lot of Enthu) all around the campus. Yes, I am talking about the Fresher Batch, 2012-14. I could recognise most of them, thanks to the Facebook Group. On the very 1st day, I could meet lot of them. Then there was some ice breaking session with the PGP1's on 19th June at midnight at Cafeteria. And I had to be there. As soon as I reached cafeteria with few of my friends, cafeteria was housefull with probably all the students of both the batches. And the way I was welcomed, probably never ever in my life had I gone through such experience. The moment will be remembered as one of my best moments @ Goa Institute of Management 
... !!!
The normal classes started for us. Though there is a complete change in our class timings if compared to 1st year. Most of the classes are post lunch and classes run on all 7 days of the week. But it's been a very nice ride for past 30 days from attending classes, submitting assignments, case studies, doing parties. Now we can party late night as very few classes are scheduled in the early morning (though not for all the PGP2's). We had 2 big events as well organised by our "Cultural Club : Razzmatazz" : Mid Summer Nyt and Fresher's Party. And both of them were memorable for us. At least for me, the Fresher's night was very memorable..
Stopping here right now. Will get back soon. Stay tuned... !!!
And I am back again..!!
Today as I look back into the last few months, ever since Admissions Process of incoming batch started, and think about the experience of interacting, helping and guiding the new batch, My own story comes to my Mind. Here is my Story.
It all began in December 2010 when I had to apply to GIM. It was 31st December and was the last date to apply. After finishing all my office works, i opened the Registering Site of GIM. Due to some error, after payment, it showed that my Registration was not successful. And I was all worried and sad. I tried calling GIM Admissions Office, but could not connect. And since it was already 4:30 p.m, tension was creeping. But suddenly something came to my mind and it was none other than "PaGaLGuy". I logged into my account and posted this query of mine. And to my surprise, I received an instant reply from one of the then 1st yr Student "RUCHIR KHANNA"( @[374976:ruchirkhanna]) that GIM has already received my payment and that my application is complete. And with all happiness on my face, I left office for New Year celebrations with my friends.
And finally came the D-Day. All the fun and excitement began on the morning of 4th April 2011, when the PGP Office of GIM sent me a mail stating I had converted. Ah, what a moment. My hands were shivering when i was entering the password of my gmail account. After I saw the mail, I just couldnot control myself. Probably my entire soul was feeling this. I instantly posted about my convert on the "just" created thread of Final Result on Pagalguy by none other than the Great "JATIN VARSHNEY"(@[181490:vars.jat]). Now, I had to head back to college, rather a School for MBA at an amazing place in India. Yes, GOA..
And then parents started asking about the college. I had already researched a lot about the college, thanks again to Pagalguy and efforts of Jatin and Ruchir. I told them everything about college, Xavier Family, placements, new campus, Fee, etc. And there came the acceptance : OKAY.. Next day, I put the papers. Every moment after that was amazing. There was a Facebook group for us, where we interacted with the seniors and our future course-mates. And the journey continued till we finally landed at GIM, God's Own B-School.... !!!
Will get back soon with the happenings at college..
Day-1
Life couldn't have been any more awesome; I murmured to myself thanking all the thousands of Gods for everything they had done for me. Here I was, semi-naked, lying on a sun-bed sipping up my fourth bottle of Heineken since morning and giving cheeky smiles to those Israeli female tourists. The music in the background was dissolving like chocolate in my ears until some stupid bell started to ring. The noise was getting louder, almost unbearable, extremely irritating till it reached its peak like a parabolic equation. And then bang, I was up throwing my iPhone down in frustration and the alarm was off! I had screwed up once again. I had only 15 minutes to catch a train, probably the most important train of my life; Goa Sampark Kranti.
Finally, the day had arrived. After more MBA interviews than the number of IPL matches per team this year, so many entrance exams, and applying to colleges where I know I couldn't get in; here I was ready to join Goa Institute of Management, God's own B-School. I had converted in the 1st list; I had the feeling I will. I never thought that non-engineering background was a luxury until I had my GIM interview. I had gathered all the info from a legend called Avinash Jha, our senior in GIM, oops! a PGP2. I was part of the Facebook group and just added 40 people in my friend-list that I didn't know anything about.
I can skip the journey part cause it sucked, although I did watch about four and half movies, ate crap food and slept like a junkie for most of the time. I had booked a room at OGR (Old Goa Residency) and there were three of us who got down at Karmali Railway Station and shared a cab to OGR. There is one thing we Indians are good at; it's called “Contri”. Be it food, travel expanses, rent, cabs or anything else, it works everywhere. I spent the night in Karmali and shared the cab till our campus in Sanqlim next day, registration was supposed to take place today.
Registration was smooth and fast enough till we reached Room No 13 in the Academic Block. I mean come on, how could they have Room No 13, isn't there a bad luck shit involved with 13? There were people standing in the queue or should I say queues. Hostel rooms were being allotted and once again it was “ladies first”. Another WTF moment, why could the girls hostel allotment not be done simultaneously in another room? They were obviously going to stay in a different Hostel block. I had felt sexually discriminated so many times before, but this one could have been avoided. Got the hostel room keys after 5 hours and the humidity in Goa didn't help. I was glad it was over.
This is it, officially a GIM student from today onwards. I was proud of what I had achieved, met so many new people with whom I will share probably the best two years of my life. Then it started to rain, the super active FB group members passed by without saying hello, the room was full of bugs and ants and what not, the electricity was as erratic as the weather, the Cafeteria was more of a mess than a cafeteria, there was not a single beach nearby, no Israeli female tourists, no music in the background, no beer bottles, no fun. Is this the Goa I had dreamed of, I questioned myself? The answer was no. But my dream was more of a perception than anything else. Even the reality is more of a perception. “PGP2s will come next week. May be then it will be more fun”, I convinced myself. Then I looked at the mountains, so beautiful, so untouched, so unaltered, so natural, so peaceful, so relaxing. The biscuit I dipped in the tea had broken in half and fell down in the cup. All izz well, my heart felt.
A new story had started, for around 240 young faces. Faces with dreams and hopes, story of joy, friendship and possibly love. Every face has a story to tell, a story similar yet so different, this is just one of them. Life suddenly had a new meaning. There was more to it than packages, appraisals, hikes, on-sites, parties, targets and deadlines. Life got on a new track. A new innings had started and somewhere in the mountains, a new cloud was taking guard.
PS- This is a work of fiction, similarities if found are truly coincidental. But under any circumstances, this is not GLOBAAL!!!
And here I am back again at 0433 hours in the morning. But not before finishing few assignments/tasks for next day. Firstly I would like to thank " @[448951:facebook]" (Amandeep Sheokand, PGP1 for calling me a legend.. (I should be happy).. !! That was a wonderful expression of your feelings ever since arriving here at GIM.
Almost half of our 4th term is over with loads of pressure of studies now. Being into 2nd year now at B-School, I can def say for sure that it is not GLOBAAL like 1st year used to be. Life has been very fast in this term with no fixed timings of classes as we have lot of Visiting Faculties coming to teach us the various electives. Since they are from corporates, they usually come in weekends and classes sometimes go on till 12 at night and again start at 7 in the morning next day and that too on Sunday.
All the 2nd year students are on their toes because of the Academic Schedule. Not to forget the Committee Selection Process. It has been going on since the last 1 month. And there are still 2-3 committees left to recruit their successors. But over all, this is a very exciting as well as tiring time for both the batches as these interviews go through out the night and Results coming early morning.
PGP1's did feel that I am in PR Cell or Admissions or some Corporate Communication Cell, but I am too inactive, lazy and careless to work hard for these very important committees of the college.
The Admission Process of 2012-14 is closed officially now with almost all Refunds Process over and very soon the notification for the Admissions of 2013-15 batch will be coming in a month or so.
Stopping here now. Will get back soon....
Day 31
1:29 a.m., it's raining the way it does here in Sanquelim since morning. The evening snacks are about to finish as I enter our beloved cafeteria. I folded my drenched umbrella, the third one since day 1 and kept it at a secret place. I take tea and sit to analyze the first month at GIM. Instantaneously the word “Awesome” came to my mind. The idea I had about life @ GIM had changed, that too in a long way.
We are settling in H-2 basement, the best place in hostel 2 irrespective of what others say. Probably the cutest JSAC007 is my roomie, and life is finally picking up pace. Sleeping more than 5 hours is a luxury that we cannot afford. We are confused as to which are the stronger showers, the torrential monsoons or the assignments. The midsummers and fresher's nights were a lot of fun along with the added benefits of finally getting a free meal and the 1st term books from our dates. The selection processes for different clubs is almost over and events have already started. Sanquelim Times has reported that the word “JCC” has been trending in GIM for over a fortnight now. The Gully Cricket by Prayas and Citius Altius Fortius by IT@GIM were awesome. Other clubs also had events with prize money more than my monthly budget at GIM.
The bike ride was astounding even though I didn't go. The grand alumni meet is happening soon and I know why the alumni would come to it. The most important part of our life is the moments that we cherish. I am sure the 2 years here will have a lot of moments to cherish. Everyone in my group is a JCC now, not that it's a royalty, it sometimes feels worthy to be a part of something that doesn't have credits attached to it. The Meccans might disagree; they say it's more than a club. May be it is, every club has it's own spirit and we as JCCs are given the responsibility to keep the spirit alive. The spirit that the clubs were founded for, we should not allow it to dilute overtime. And the spirit of GIM, the Globaal, Jaggu, Kailash, midnight snacks, IP messenger and the fun that we surely will look back upon when we pass out of the college.
For now it is time to enjoy these moments, midterms for us are next week. The Israeli female tourists can wait for now, the Heineken did not. Music is always hearable in the background. PGP2s have definitely changed the dynamics, the energy has amplified. Every BDay gets celebrated, soccer is more frequent so are the visits to JK and case studies. I read somewhere “Enjoy the small things in life. When you grow old, you will realize they were the big things”. I try and enjoy everything because I can't take the chance of classifying big and small.
The tea is over, the cafeteria is dimly lit which means time to go. I walked into the library, opened Fred Luthans and I hear a vibration. It's the reminder on my iPhone. Vijender Singh has just put on his boxing gloves; everyone is in common room of H2. Luthans can wait, at least for a day. Time to cheer for the country just like we cheered for Gully Cricket in MPH. Time to go to bed at 3:15, I no longer dream in sleep, the reality is more of a dream. As I close my laptop, somewhere down south, Virat Kohli is dreaming of another hundred.
Good News
PPO's/PPI's News have started pouring in.
So Placement Season begins.. :)