Reached..

“The train is running two-and-a-half-hours late.” This was the way I welcomed into the city of Calcutta, my home for the next two years (minimum :p) on the 17^th of June. Well, we (me and my parents) took a train journey from Mumbai to Howrah which was supposed to be 33 hours but in the end, it took us 36 hours to reach from commercial capital of India to the capital city of India till 1911. Why cant Railways introduce a faster train between these two stations…well that for later!

Anyways, rain God was too happy to receive me and gave us a wet welcome. Rain would have bothered me but 2 years of stay in Mumbai has made me tough and no rain is enough to make me nervous (especially when I had through Mumbai rains on the famous day of 26^th July, 2005). After getting for the day, we set out for the journey to report to the institute.

Oh yes, forgot to mention the amount of water-logging I saw in the city roads. It was supposed to be “pre-monsoon” shower and the water was knee deep already. Maybe, I am yet to see the worse. More updates on that whenever I witness it.

We hit upon Diamond Harbour Road, on which IIM is. The journey never seemed to end; and after like 40 minutes, I saw it – the board – INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, CALCUTTA. A chill ran down my spine. It was here…finally J J. Well, I went in, got the room, shifted in and etc etc.

Cut to Friday the 20^th of June. It was our orientation day where we were formally welcomed, introduced to the faculty and IIM C in general. The evening function saw the august presence of our Director and the CEO of P&G, India (alum of 1983). It was an honour to hear people with great academic qualifications under their belt and with varied experience.

This was the first night I was going to spend in my hostel room and for the rest of my days I was staying with my parents in the city. This was the first time I got a chance to interact with my neighours, people in my hostel and other batch mates and I must say some of them are just incredible. People in my batch are JEE rank 14 holders’, world’s 7^th best debater, rejecting an Kellogg admit, 100 percentiler in CAT English, National level Quizzers, Chess players and you think, a person will be present.

Saturday first half was fixed for the city tour organised by the institutes and executed by our seniors. It was really well organised and coordinated and I think no amounts of thanks are enough towards seniors for doing so for us.

Our classes were scheduled to start from Monday. In one week, I have had classes of all the subjects but since multiple faculties teach a particular course, so I am yet to interact with all the faculty members. The faculty is just...I don’t know what to say! Their qualifications, their way of teaching, the course content is all just A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

Also, since the faculty puts in so much effort for these classes, they expect us to be the same; i.e., reaching class dot on time, reading the prescribed of the class before hand, quality assignments, and on similar lines.

In the end, it has been a dream first week here in IIM Calcutta and I am really excited to explore the next 2 years now. Keep watching this space for more!