Weekend cries !

And finally Friday ended. Not the way I would have liked to, but it did end ! Friday's always a welcome day at B-school, albeit different reasons for different people. Some like to hang out with their friends, having escaped from the rigors of an 8.00 am submission the next day. Some like to study the week's portions, anticipating a test the next week. Some people are still more paranoid, studying the next week's portions ahead of schedule, so as to be prepared for a test in the next-to-next week.

And there are people like me. Who dread the next morning's exam on managerial communication, and who do not neglect its importance because, after all, it's a two - credit course.

Not because we're overly bothered about topping the class. But just because this is our last attempt to salvage pride. Pride of being in B-school, pride of clearing CAT, pride of a thousand things. So the Friday goes off, fairly unproductive, save mugging the format of a business proposal (if I remember, the text's exact words were - "Though the importance of marriage/divorce proposals cannot be undermined, the textbook shall limit its scope to academic and business proposals. ")

Saturday morning. I wake up to the sound of the paper dropping on my doorstep. And to the stifling odor of Good-night spreading through the fan-less room slaughtering a thousand mosquitoes in its wake. So much for all the malarial paranoia. In all earnestness, I wipe my whiteboard clean and write down all that's pending over the term. All submissions, tests, exams. Even the biz-fest events that I've committed to participate in, God only knows why. I sit back with a smile, not unlike the way Saif Ali Khan sits watching his dad and sis's pictures on a wall coated with Asian paints. (that's a popular Indian ad for those who are still wondering if I've gone nuts).

Then I suddenly remember that the exam's at 2.00 pm and sit down to study. Reminders of how I used to practice "Formal Letter" and "Informal letter" in class VI come flowing in. Why, oh why, is it so hard now ? It used to be so unbelievably easy back then. English was a subject that made you earn brownie marks and raise your average if you did badly in Social studies or something. Now, it's the other way round.

Amid such thoughts, and more, I manage to complete the exam. We receive our feedback at the end of the exam, and a chilling shudder goes up the spine of men who hitherto considered themselves gods. Some people did badly. Some did worse. But the chosen few, who did cross 70, jumped their way back to the hostel. And I, was not among them. Yet another "Aam aadmi" exam.

Saturday night ends on the same ambitious note as the morning began. Only this time, the list on the whiteboard gets longer, as your neighbors ungenerously remind you that you've overlooked three or four tests and the resume verification due next week.

Sunday morning finally arrives. It's probably a time for celebration, you think. But with the grim feeling that the grades dished out the previous day, you decide that the final presentation in Managerial communication that is due Tuesday, deserves more respect and effort than you envisaged it would. Especially since it's now your only chance to gain any leeway in this subject, and all your life you've claimed to have the proverbial gift of the gab. A line from "Snapshots from Hell" comes to mind - "Strangle weaknesses. Strengthen opportunities."

And then Parkinson's law takes its toll. Work expands to fill the time available to complete it. You never know how time flies. It's 2.30 pm, you've missed lunch because your friends tell you the food in the mess is pathetic, and anyway there's just too much rush with all the exchange foreigners coming in. So we order food from outside, and somehow you're never happy with the quality of the food. The grass, as they say, is always greener on the other side of the fence.

You return to your desk to find that your presentation is nowhere near completion. An exaggerated sense of urgency grips you, and your fingers tap away on the laptop till they're comfortably numb. Finally at around 10 pm, the P.P.T.'s done, and you lean back with a sense of accomplishment. "Substantial", as my neighbor would call it. You turn around, and you see the whiteboard in a position where you can rub nothing off your list. The same list that gave you pride and inspiration last morning, now gives you a sense of revulsion mixed with cynical philosophy. Stomach wildly heavy with the naans and rotis that you hogged for lunch, you just crash onto the bed, with nothing to fight for.

Monday morning arrives, and you realize you're no better off than Friday. If anything, you're probably worse off. If you've honestly been reading this putting yourself in my shoes whenever I wrote 'you' instead of 'I' or 'me', you'll understand what a weekend at B-school is.

Unenviable, says Collins, is the right word.

Humiliation

So I'm sitting in my class at IIMB, feeling smug seeing my nameplate on my desk - it's actually got my name and roll number on it - and basking in the glory that is IIMB. Basking in the knowledge that this was what a 2 lakh people wrote CAT for, and this is fun...being here, doing this.

And of course, I'm totally oblivious to what the prof's saying - something about Greiner's model of organizations' birth and death. Ughh...it's irritating sitting in a class like this full of inactivity and not doing anything save listen. So I took this pic. You can't see me, of course, but you can see how most of the class is dozing off. You can also see my yellow highlighter on the table and that's there because I wasn't using it; so my neighbour decided he would play with it. Fine. So much for a regular class.

Out of the blue, the lights go out, and there's this wonderful movie that our professor plays about Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai and how they're creating waves with the good work that they do. The video is moving and inspirational. My friend remarks, why can't such movies hit Inox instead of flicks like Chak De. Yeah, interesting, I think. Get SRK to be a doc, and 16 nurses, and bam! you have a blockbuster. Some movie, huh?

Anyway, so the movie's over, and everyone is visibly moved including the prof, and so we go on to the rest of the lecture. It's what follows that probably made this one of my most memorable lectures; I just hope I remember it for all the right reasons. (italics reflect my thoughts)

Prof: So what happens in an organization when you get a fresh set of employees or people and make them adjust to the vision of the company.

Me: Does the fresher really have a choice? Hell, he wouldn't paid if he didn't stick by the company. So he'd work, what else?

Prof: This is probably best studied in light of the IIMs themselves. Now apparently, this top level institute in India (I'm not taking names, so that SMC can't sue me for being politically incorrect) follows a process called Unfreezing, Change and Refreezing. Unfreezing is the most painful process of the three. You guys come as cool cats, with the mentality that you've done it all. And so you're hardly ready to learn anything, let alone get transformed into something greater.

Me: For the first time in an MO lecture, I'm actually attentive. Hell, this guy seems to be speaking to me!!!

Prof:And so, the first term is deliberately made so hard, with so much workload that even the best of students can humanly not cope with it. And say by the end of term, you actually start questioning your own abilities.

Precisely what we freshers were bitching about last night in the Dukh Baanto session in my room. Oh, for crying out loud!!!

Prof: And the system makes sure that even the best of students ends up with at least a couple of D's. By when the student is brought down to his knees, and he actually starts accepting that he is not the supreme master and commander of the universe. There's more to learn. The process that follows, is called change and refreezing that inculcates stuff into the kid, and makes him strong.

Somehow reminds of a documentary on Kung Fu I was watching a couple of months ago. But yeah, it feels nice to know that we're falling right down your trap.

Prof: Just remember that the harder and more painful this process is, the stronger your alumni network will be. And yeah the bottomline - do not come to me if you end up with C's or D's. Just take it in your stride.

Wow, some way of putting it, that.