Just another funny day in my funny life…

Bam! A door shut somewhere near my room. Bleary eyed, I tried hard to see the alarm. After several vain attempts, I finally succeeded. It was 9.15 am. Classes start by 9.30. “@#$%!” I cursed. First class was Operations Mgmt, and the professor would shut the door by the dot. Such situations make me argue that women should be given more preference in the teaching profession. You could get away going 10 minutes late. I usually have 3 alarms – one alarm, a mobile and a comp alarm. After all the attempts, I didn’t wake up - coz I slept at something like 4 the previous night. I thought perhaps I was cruel to myself… sleeping for just 3/4 hrs is inhuman. But ‘twas no time to ponder about all that crap. I had to take a choice between brushing teeth and breakfast. I decided on doing both – afterall isn’t nick-of-the-time management an art? Call it efficiency or a sloppy job - I brushed the teeth in 2 minutes flat. I ran to the mess and grabbed whatever stuck to my hand. Walking uphill every morning is a real pain in the a$$, and I had to run, multiplexing breakfast along with. Like you see in movies, I entered the class as the door was closing. Only after reaching my seat did I realize the intense pain in the leg… climbing the quasi-hill at break-neck speed isn’t amusing. This isn’t stamina-building you see.

The 1st class: I hadn’t read the case for class discussion. Doesn’t matter coz I had a good track record of both the pre-class readings and the case readings for this particular class. I probably have already had spoke too much… I might just escape from being cold-called. 70 minutes later, I did get away.

The 1st break: A 15 minutes break is bliss; particularly if you are served gratis hot tea. Anything free rocks!

The 2nd class: It was a marketing session, and we had a surprise quiz for 10 minutes. I had read the chapter, but the answer for one question (out of the two) evaded me. Without many options (I just don’t find the need, feel or nerve to copy), I consoled myself saying “Damn the grades! I had studied the chapter anyway. That’s what matters.” 10 minutes into the session, our group had to present a case. I did the ending part of the presentation, and let the group members take most of the questions… I hadn’t had worked enough on that presentation.

The 3rd class: It was a real monotonous session. My neighbor started singing some esoteric jazz note. I didn’t make an effort to stop him fearing that he’d start singing it non-stop. While I was kind of going crazy, one of my neighbors was cold-called. I was kind of jolted thinking that I was the one being called. Fortunately, as luck would have it, it wasn’t me. I decided to concentrate on the class. I also took a vain resolution to study and concentrate in all the classes. You know, it was a kind of resolution that you’d take everyday and let it go once that 10 minute phase passes… that was probably the hundredth time I took that kind of a resolution. The classes are generally of 70 minutes duration, and this class looked like transcending the length of the Ice Age. Finally, after what looked like a year in absolution, it ended. It was 1.30 pm.

The obvious: Once we were out of the class, as lady luck would evade, I saw a long queue in front of the notice board. I knew what was in store. I asked what, and someone told me about the long-awaited Macroeconomics quiz in the afternoon. Duh! Afternoon just got bungled. Sometimes, life in a B-school sucks.

Lunch: I initially thought I’d skip the boring, lack-of-variety lunch, but decided to have something. Ulcer is one thing that I can’t afford to have now. I ate the fast food kind of items in the menu and left to my room… it was 1.45. The quiz was at 3.00. I roughly had about an hour to brush up.

Quiz: Economics quizzes have always been ok types for me. Other subjects would have been a different story. I had studied the portion earlier, and the one hour brush up worked quite well. Had a comfortable feeling at the end of the quiz coz of two reasons: 1) the quiz got over, and 2) I *thought* I did well. You know, the feeling is more important than the real performance… it’s all about satisfaction in the end.

Post-quiz: There was a Section A vs. B cricket match going on as part of the games week. My section ‘A’ had to win coz we had a bad track record. We went well initially, but bungled in the end. All in the game! I grabbed the Business Today from my friend and read it for something like 2 hours – cover to cover, including advertisements. You could learn a lot about marketing from advertisements… or so I believed. I then grabbed a sleep of two hours before the dinner.

The stroll: I and Chandoo have this habit of walking down and up the hill after the dinner. The weather is real cold – like 12 degrees - and the bend, the city-view etc from the winding roads inside the hilltop campus makes walking a really pleasant experience. I then decided to wash my clothes since it was like 3 weeks since I last did that. As I was drowned in some thought, my friend jolted me: “What the @#@$ are doing watching the washing machine”. I said “I like watching the swirling waters”. He looked at me like watching an alien. He must’ve thought I’m weird. And I probably am.

I then managed to study something for the next days’ classes, some other esoteric assignment and preparation, and made it to the mess at 1 in the night. It’s kind of become a routine to spend some half an hour there... little did I realize what I did later – probably some newspapers, some music, some movie review and stuff - it was 4.00 in the night. I decided to crash off for the day, and marked the alarm at 7.00 in the morning, knowing real well that I wouldn’t make it. It’s going to be yet another day…

P.S: All of these probably wouldn’t have taken place the same day, but the sequence is close … recorded as far as I remember things. And, I wouldn’t bet on my memory.