The day on campus started as usual with classes but the evening held something out of the usual for the students. What was in store for us? Well, an interactive session with Malli Mastan Babu, one of the most illustrious alums of our college!!! He needs no introduction; a Google search on his name throws up close to 6000 results. One of the reasons for his presence on campus was to pitch for his idea of conducting a pan IIM Himalayan base camp trek.

The down to earth man who scaled the peaks

The adventure club took on the onus of conducting a grand session for the students. It was ideal as Malli was the founder of this club. The club organized a 15 km (10 rounds of the campus) for the students, an opportunity to spend that time setting the pace with our alum. Two of our PGP2 students Vikram Murthy & Bhuvanprasad (Both members of the Adventure Club) were the only ones to complete the run with Malli. Not to mention that Malli was taking it easy on the boys and running at a leisurely pace. Next in line was the interactive session at our lecture room after dinner.

Students started to pour in for the session much before the scheduled time. Something that we don’t get to see for our lecture sessions on a daily basis but this was different. A first hand informative session with the fastest 7 summiter in the world. It as close as you can get to climbing Mount Everest without actually doing so. The session began with a big round of desk thumping for the alum when he entered, a tradition that has been followed at IIM Calcutta for years. Malli had a long look around the class. Maybe trying to soak in the classroom ambience or maybe trying to find an old glimpse of him in the students eagerly looking at him.

With a small pause he addressed the students. Starting from his reasons to setup the adventure club and his experiences in college. Just for the facts, Malli never joined any club in his first year. All the while, he stressed on the need to pause sometime in life and ponder about our life’s calling. He explained to his students about how mountaineering came about for him and the troubles he had to face. Then came the brilliant pictures of his various treks around the world. For MBA students, the CV is the Holy Grail. Well how about Mt. Kilimanjaro & Mt. Vinson Massif for starters. Oh, if that is not enough just a small matter of Mt. Everest to top it all. Another round of thumping followed when he displayed the above picture on the screen. We can claim to be the first IIM with its emblem at Mt. Vinson Massif, Antarctica.

The question on everyone’s mind was asked by our current president of adventure club, Jaideep Choudhary. What next, Malli? The answer was humble yet monumental. Scaling the highest 14 peaks (8000m and above) across the world and his personal dream of conducting a trek for the IIM Students. He ended the session with a statement in respect of Mount Everest – ‘This is not a mountain where you can have rules’. Well he ought to know it.

Akshat Patil