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!

Teething problems

I went to Bangalore recently and was little thrilled to know that we would be landing at the new airport. I took a Spice Jet from Delhi on 24th morning. Our flight reached B’lore at 0800 hours and was one of the first few flights to use the new airport. But this is where the honeymoon ended (our scheduled arrival was 0815 hours).

Our aircraft cleared the runway within a moment but was stranded for a long time. After like 5 minutes, the pilot announced that the allotted parking bay was already occupied and new instructions are still not received. After a wait of 15 minutes, finally the aircraft was parked.

Then, the doors were opened and everyone stood up with bag and baggage ready to get off the plane. But one needs stairs to get off; which were not in place. After 15 minutes of waiting, pilot announced that the passengers should be seated as the ladder is on its way. Well, the ladder did arrive after 15 more minutes.

Then, we entered the airport. Man, it was huge and swanky. It did give an International Airport look. Next we moved to the baggage collection and we were not surprised when we did not see our baggage. There was no intimation when will our baggage arrive and more importantly on which belt!!! Well, that information did come up but not more 20 odd minutes.

Next, the belt refused to move. The luggage did start coming in but somehow only one or two pieces were coming at a time. After an agonizing wait of 40 minutes, we got our bag and were on our way out.

Something funny which we saw on our way out was that there was lotsa luggage on a particular belt but no passenger to receive it :P :P Watch the video here

Well, the flight which landed at 0800 hrs had its passengers coming out of the airport terminal at around 1030 hours.

This is criminal wastage of time.

Now for the return journey. I used the Volvo shuttle service for the airport. I took the bus from Kormangla and the journey costs Rs. 150/- But the given the distance, Volvo bus’ comfort and AC, it’s a fair charge. I later came to know that cabs are asking for 700 one way @*&$(@

Anyhow, the departure area is huge with over 60 check-in counters. The check in was smooth and so was the security check. But the waiting lounge was cramped and small and was just not enough to accommodate the expected number of passengers. Luckily, we got seats and were comfortable.

The announcement system is BAD as there is too much echo inside the waiting terminal.

The flights were getting delayed for no good reason and this was all attributed to chaos and confusion at the new airport ATC.

Our 2130 flight finally took off at 2310 and all the delay was too much confusion at the new Bangalore Airport. The journey was also not very pleasant due to bad weather in B’lore and never in my life I experienced so many jerks inside the aircraft. The plane dipped twice, lost height, titled sharply and what not. In short, I was badly scared :D :D

The authorities were still stupid to shift ALL the operations from the old airport to the new one. Had it been done in phases, it would have led to less confusion and frustration. I hope the same mistakes are not repeated for the Delhi and Mumbai upcoming International Airports.