D - 140: First Pit Stop

Amitabh Bachchan always mentions the day before every post he shares on the social media. So I decided to imbibe that habit, for once, in this blog as well. So there goes the logic behind D – 140. I’ve spent 20 weeks so far during my stay on the hill here in Pune and have one more day before I go on my way home, for the semester break that is, I’ve not given up on my MBA quest!! Anyways, before I boarded the flight to Pune 20 weeks ago, I promised myself that I won’t come back empty handed (figuratively). Keeping all the heavy, jargonised learnings at rest for the moment, following are the experiences that stood out for me and will accompany the luggage to Delhi, besides my LIVE appearance. Read on: 

• Shift in Time Zones: Those who know me well will agree to the fact of me being the proverbial owl, in the sense that I usually do most of my work after midnight and prefer not to wake up unless I feel hungry. And mind you, for 21 years now, I had been living a life sans breakfast. Come to Pune, and the tables turned on me.
  In a nutshell, I used to wake up at 7:30 in the morning (almost every day), and feel hungry by 8:00 itself. Add to that, I began following the conventional 3 meals a day routine, much to the shock of my parents. But as they say, old habits die hard. While studying for the exams, I reverted to my Batman avatar and when a frog accidently came to my room at 3 last night, I was awake to welcome him, and not sleeping. We both watched Ship of Theseus for a while before I decided it was time for him to go.

• Class Duration: I was a big fan of my school authorities when they decided to reduce the class duration by ten minutes for one period everyday, providing a much needed relief from the 40 minutes odd classes we used to have seven times a day.  I went to college and there I found out each class was for 55 minutes, and that too depended upon the lecturer’s choice to leave or continue teaching. And then came MBA and voila, 90 minutes it is, 5 times a day.
  But contrary to popular opinion (here popular opinion refers to the opinion of.....myself) I did quite well and thrived through them, a 93% attendance is a testimony to that.

• Laundry: The one advantage, besides others, of having working parents is that you learn to manage the home on your own. So for almost a decade, I had perfected the art of using and maintaining most of the appliances like the gas stove, television, computer, cooler , A/C and washing machine. So at times, while my mom thought I would be BUSY sleeping till noon, which was true more often than not, I would be doing my laundry so as to reduce some of her burden (aah.. aadarsh beta).
  Welcome to hostel life, and I am reaping the benefits of the same, not to mention that infact now I do it without a washing machine. Just to pile up the bragging theme of this point, as I type this, 2 bedsheets are up for drying outside.

• “City”: I remember during primary school days there would often be stories about villagers going to the town to earn a living and all that. Here amidst the picturesque campus atop the hill, those stories seem to resurrect themselves in the sense that for people here, Pune comprises two parts – the campus and everything else- “city”. People here go to the “city” for work, for partying, for shopping and to add to the village-town analogy of the school book stories, often there are people asking those who are going to city to get something for  them, much like how some of the villagers would rely upon the town goer to get something for them as well. Not to mention the fact that there are scheduled buses which make the to and fro city trips convenient for all of us.

• Cycles: The first mode of transport I encountered upon my arrival here was a golf-cart. As time progressed I came to know that they were the inherent cab like service here and most of the hill dwellers had to use the environment friendly 2 wheeler – the bicycle. There were plenty of them when you didn’t need them, and none when you did. But jokes apart, cycling around the campus during the evenings (because I was too lazy for an early morning ride) was indeed refreshing and was the one thing I looked forward to doing whenever we had an early finish.
  For now, it's time to go back to those familiar busy roads and honking vehicles. 

• The Social Network: Once the initial flurry of facebook friend requests had subsided, it was the other “professional” social media that gained prominence – LinkedIn. Facebook profiles gave way to their LinkedIn versions, friend requests became “invitations to connect” and friends became connections. I also created a LinkedIn account and the site continues to tell me by how much percentage my ranking has changed over the past few weeks, at times making me feel like a share listed on the stock market.
  On a serious note (which are anyways very few on this blog), do create a LinkedIn profile, it will help you in the professional world.

•  Lastly... it wouldn’t be fair to end this post without mentioning the people I have met here. There is abundance of talent, loads of warmth and plethora of relationships, all these make life on the hill really worth living. I’ll be looking forward to coming back here in a few weeks, and I am sure so do the rest of my peers. It's a Symbiosis family up here. 
  
  
  
  
  

We all head home now, for our first pit stop in this MBA journey, to get rejuvenated and spoiled once again before we pursue the next phase of our lives here on the hill.  

So that's it with this much delayed post (yes, I was busy studying for the exams!!). Next post I write will come to you from New Delhi next week, and until then...

Take Care..

And a Very Happy Diwali to all of you :) :)