Beginning of a journey called ISB

:)

That smile was for finally being able to open the once exploited link - www.blogger.com.

Here I am, at Hyderabad, after a 20 month break, 3 cities, -ve bank balance of 20 lacs and a few hundred kilos of apprehension. I am at the Indian School of Business. The much coveted B-School in India and as I'd like to believe, across the globe. This time not as a visitor or a candidate but as a student. A rather difficult 12 hr bus ride with dad and without mom, I entered the 260 acre campus 2 weeks ago, on 10th of April. I dont know if it was the tiring journey or the tiring paperwork or the load of expectations that almost instantly killed all the thrill of  making it to this place, the moment I entered.

So far it's been 2 days of registration process, a week of orientation - or disorientation and another week of pre-terms i.e laying foundations of basic mathematics, statistics and accountancy. The O-week was all about team building activities in the hot Hyderabadi sun and the pre terms were about sitting dazed in every single class, hoping people would shut up. I've never seen such a confluence, of 500 people who all think they are the best and want to tell everyone that they are indeed the best. I don't mean to doubt the capabilities or the achievements of people who are here but the effort behind trying to get noticed is ridiculous to my mind. I have always considered showing off in any form - physical or intellectual as the ultimate sign of weakness and to a large extent inferiority complex. This theory of mine, is of course debatable. More so because I am trying to transform myself into a deeper, mature and accommodating person - so passing value judgements like this is definitely not going to help me be who I want to be. So hopefully, by the end of the year I would have proven my own theory incorrect.

I have been one hell of a reserved person in the last 2 weeks. Except for this one night when I went and actually hit the dance floor, I've consciously kept myself away from any form of limelight. Why try to fake it? Also I think introducing yourself individually to 500 people is a time taking and tiring task. And to make the process less monotonous for yourself, you have to come up with different tones and levels of excitement or introduce a new facet of yourself to everyone and exclude some already used adjectives about yourself. The bandwidth required for this task is huge and I have now simply given up. I dont speak unless spoken to and speak as little as I can - just to make enough conversation to acknowledge a question and to avoid traps of further small talk.

Tomorrow begins Core Term - 1 and so begins the madness to catch up with peers at class, finish assignments and prepare for midterms which are exactly 3 weeks from now. I can already see time flying.

The next one year, will hopefully be better than the last 1 year. Amen!