December 25, 2011 
Sreenivas (PGDM Batch of 1986) looks back and recalls all that made his stay at Joka memorable…
Twenty five years is a long time and whew! How it has passed – or has it, really? When we were in IIMC, we celebrated the silver jubilee of IIMC and now it is IIMC’s Golden Jubilee– should we call ourselves the Jubilee Batch?
A great two years – possibly the longest holiday I took. Good, bad and ugly moments but moments to savour nonetheless. Trying to recall some great moments
- Landed in IIM, having never been to Kolkata before – circumspect, somewhat overawed, feeling – Will I be able to rub shoulders with the crème? Lasted a full 2 weeks – when Finance tutes started and I was anointed as one of them by Ramu, felt supreme. The confidence you get by sharing space with such talent is what makes IIMC special, I presume.
- The Yea Yea Hanumantha calls when his hamper arrived (he used to have it delivered after midnight) and how we got together to clean it up
- The episode of the Tyre Stealing masterminded by Shishoo, Venki et al. The lack of the hallowed TYRE was always a black mark for White House Guys and we thought we had, what was a well thought out plan to steal the TYRE and move it to White House. In the wee hours of the morn at 3 am, a small group of avengers led by Shishoo crept towards OH with lookouts et al. What we missed was that, in this core group, we had a double agent – Jaggu (with his hair cut) had crept in – and, as we approached the TYRE, shouted himself hoarse, waking half the hostel. Needless to say, the episode turned out to be a fiasco.
- Or Ali’s Folly and the stints at Howrah Bridge
- The unending arguments with the Diro and the FC of the Institute literally accusing them of diverting funds meant for Students for other not-so-desirable purposes.
- The Tram visits on Thursdays, led by RamC (God Bless his soul), to eat Vengaya Sambar dinner at Lake Avenue
- The old, morose lady in PGP office who created admin bottlenecks for all and sundry but had “Lake of tears, Ocean of sorrows, Valley of death and End of life” written under her table showing how she had a murky love life behind her
- The never ending arguments with Asoke Da (which none of us won, anyway)
- The eyes, green with envy as the “tutees” of the 22nd batch landed up at small hours in VC’s room, next to mine.
- Or the Gujju money wizard, Bharat Shah who used to advise on “How to make lakes in the Stoke Market”
- Prof Ramu’s quizzes, Prof MCB’s stats, Prof Ranjit Sau’s soulful cry “When Price rises, National income falls” (he used to cry nearly – no wonder all of know still what happens when prices rise) , SK Chakraborty, who used to have sleepless nights over the National Debt of Papua New guinea or the Prof who taught Population Economics with half the class asleep and who suddenly shouted “Why am I wasting time? I know all this stuff”
- Or the hair cut for all of Rs 2.50 under the tree in Thakurpukur – Or the hours we spent in trams waiting for the power to return and wondering who was more ancient – the tram or the driver
- The time I was asked to Role Play a Malayali Union leader by a visiting Prof (I think his name was CD Menon – he had a white Frenchie) and I turned it into a mimicry of the Prof bringing the house down
- How we creamed the opposition in TT (XLRI, all other IIMs)
- How I was chucked out from the Main building on Day 0 of placement when I hung around there wearing my lungi
- Watson, Srikant, Ashish (Rawat), Hari, NA, Sid, Hippo – and almost all our batchmates – who can forget these
But there were tough moments as well
- The day we lost Cherry and the days thereafter
- When I had to take 3 weeks off being down with Jaundice
- Having to stay on after the 6th sem, waiting to get the accounts cleared – the AGMS, the EGMs, the senti speeches – great support from all Hippo, Watson, Srikant – all Committee guys
- Or how we were all shocked when we watched TV for a change (we had all of one and a half TVs on campus) listening in on the Bhopal Gas Tragedy and how we were campus locked after Mrs G’s assassination
The list can go on and on – but these memories and all ye guys and gals are what make IIMC special…
About Jandeep Singh
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