Another Day in Jokaland
I’m sitting on the last bench, corner seat in the massive gallery that is L3. It is the end term paper for Financial Accounting. I keep chewing the end of my pencil. My head feels light. My eyelids feel leaden. I cant keep my eyes open. Serves me right for keeping everything for the last minute. Wake up. The question paper rings angrily!
Beep beep! It’s my alarm clock going off! Whew, that was scary. Scarier still is the fact that I have been pressing the snooze button all along in my sleep. It is almost 8.20 am! No breakfast for me then. Quickly going through my morning ablutions, I stuff whatever notebook is the most visible on my desk into my backpack and start running. Down the stairs, past the mess, past the jetty, evading the bombing (for the uninformed, Jokaland is inhabited by a LOT of crows), I run to the lecture. Punctuality is appreciated in Jokaland and it is not uncommon to find the door simply locked if you enter your 8.30 class at 8.35 am. Just in time I enter L1 to find the Professor entering from the other door.
An hour an a half later, I rush to the snack shop in the Academic Block for my cup of “wake-up” juice, also known as coffee. 3 more lectures to go in the day, 3 hours to lunch and my stomach is singing. No money, no breakfast would have been the normal course but for the helping hands around me. Say the magic words “Yaar, khilade” and a sandwich is conjured up out of nowhere. You meet some of the most helpful and friendly people here and 90% of them are your classmates, the other 10% being shared among seniors and even Professors. Its not for no reason that IIM C is an “RG-free” zone.
1.30 pm and its lunch time. I stick it out for 10 minutes behind the long queue in the mess before I am able to access the meal of the day. Wolfing down rice and curry, I rush off for the next and final lecture of the day.
4.00 pm and I’m back in my room. 2 cases to read and a quiz to prepare for tomorrow. Its going to be one long night. But wait a minute, it’s time for some footer! After an hour of head-butting the ball and mistimed kicks, I’m finally exhausted. I trudge back to my cases and books, skinned elbow and all.
1.00 am in the night and its time for a midnight snack. As I venture out of my room I am greeted by the cacophony of a million guitars and drumsticks on overdrive. Oh yes, it JBS in the music room. Jokaland never sleeps. Even at 5 in the morning dont be surprised to find the odd human watching the sun rise on IIM C’s very own ‘Howrah bridge’.
2.00 am and its time for shut eye. I put on episode 8 of the 4th season of a good sitcom I filched off DC++ and sleep off on my keyboard. Good Night Jokaland.
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:08 pm
too much hai krishnan…joka rocking
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Thanks Deepak but that wasn’t Krishnan
February 26th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Oops…. all credit to the person who penned it
Deepak Dabas
Class of 2008
IIM Calcutta