IIM Lucknow - Back to school after 27 Years and associated Ladies and Gentlemen

Week One : New Beginnings - At B School 

Welcome to the Misty Temple

          Why do they call it a B school? Well Ok I'm not that dumb - I know what B stands for, I'm here after all. The point I'm trying to make is, that these are the A list  institutions of our country. And they have made the second spot "B" hot, and Primma Donna -"A" - redundant. Before you, the reader, jumps to any conclusion, let me clarify. THIS POST IS NOT ABOUT B SCHOOLS, nor is this any self gratifying monologue about me getting a foot into the door. This is about life's journey. Groan, did I just say that? Well! Ok its about ME - naturally - AND a bunch of 40 plus (a few minus 40s and a few who grudgingly accept that it is much more than 40). It's about people who make life what it is - Interesting! But first about ME - before we talk of the "Associated". Afterall every bit of a journey has to have starts and short-stops!

Goodbye 2016

      Cold is not cold till you've lived it. New  Years day  2017 was warm. Kind of light  and fluffy. The day started off with fireworks - not the domestic.... indifference variety. A new years party, music, food, friends and most importantly family. A few hours later I bid adieu to my wife, daughter, dog, cat, garden and that sanctuary called home and set off back home. Home Visakhapatnam - the city of destiny. Home, Lucknow - the City of Nawabs, where my parents live.  Back to where it all started. It was like yesterday, nearly 25 and a half years back, that my parents saw me off from Charbagh Railway station, Lucknow. To set me off on a journey of adventure tacking to blue waters. That, the journey had to first traverse through Naval  Academy, and various human indignities like - bogs on Sunday morning, rolling crawling, heat sessions, seventh heaven and many more - that it bonded a bunch of green horns into band of brothers, is another story. Like the greeks and romans of yore who first learnt the art of war, before stepping into the milder domain of school. It took four more years before reaching us on the high seas with a Nelsons ring and a golden stripe on the shoulder, but that, is yet another story.   A glorious life, a life of whites and blues, a life of dignity, a life full of challenges smiles, storms and rainbows. Nothing like a starry night and the great blue yonder.
   

Lucknow Airport - Don't ask why I got the Golf set along!
 Its still lying at my parents place

     I'll jet forward to 01 Jan 2017. New beginnings, marking the beginning of the end of a life well lived. New Beginnings to a life of fresh adventure and challenges. Bring it on.  I landed at Chaudhary Charan Singh, 'Amausi', Airport Lucknow at around 1330hrs - One thirty pm for the uninitiated - and was engulfed with the childhood memories of the warmth of Lucknowi Tahzeeb and hit with  a cold January day.    Cold is not cold till you've lived it. Kindof weird, I had spent my childhood here. Cycled to school on the same countless  foggy January mornings. Right now, right here, every pore of my body was frozen stiff. 

       

     My first impression of IIM L was - lost! Where am I?  Is this the hallowed portal of knowledge? Is this the fabled jumping board that catapults people onto the heady highs of corporate life? Ok, to be fair, we got a little lost. After a short pit stop - Home (where mom loaded 'her little boy'  {more like embarrassed big boy, as I was with a colleague} with Quilts, snacks to last a lifetime, and other miscellaneous knick-knacks) - we reached IIML Gate without incident. (A point here, I certify - MOM KNOWS BEST. These numerous knick-knacks are life savers. Love you mom).

Room with a View - All Fogged out

    Oh, yes back to the narrative! So yes we got lost. Apparently the internal road network at the institute was undergoing major repairs, so we had to use a gate further on. The guard welcomed us with a smile, gave us directions, and to good measure (maybe because my best recall of Lucknowi Hindi was way below par) gave us ominous warning of villages and wildlife beyond the haven of the campus. A road led to a thin village path! And we got lost. Thinking back, how, is a question I still cannot answer. Needless to say by the time we thankfully reached  the required destination it was near dark and we were engulfed with a white, bone chilling, blanket of Fog. Three flights of stairs - so this is what is meant by carrying your own load and feeling it at every step - led us to a comfortable snug room. Warm and cozy and with an  ever smiling a courteous housekeeping staff  - the place which would be home for the better part of the year.

   

All Layered Up

The Brothers - friendly as can be
That's in the air here
Warm and welcoming

     We set off on a journey of discovery and the first attire that I shed - was attitude- nah not the personality one - attitude of - "Oh! this is Lucknow winters, big deal, I grew up here". On came the monkey cap (to protect the big wise bald pate)  and layers of  thermals et all. The first sign of 'Wildlife' was of the canine variety. The 'brothers' gave us a smiling welcome. Though they were prudent enough to follow/lead us only uptill  the students mess, and unlike us did not go around on exploratory walks, in this cold cold weather. Walks we took, a one too many. Needless to say I came down with a nasty cough and cold. Humbled I discovered the campus doctor and the chemist and the friendly Sardarji Stationery wala. The Shopkeepers welcomed us like the knowledgeable sages who have hand held streams of similar 'students' that pass through 'Prabandh Nagar'(as this the place is called). My coursemates, who were not lucky enough to have 'Mom' in station, were accordingly kitted up with quilts, buckets and various other accoutrements in quick time. A special mention-in-dispatches to the Sardarji who indulgently withstood my (even poorer than Lucknowi Hindi) attempts to converse with him in Punjabi.

     In a later 'Welcome' address we were told about many things, a few of which stand out in memory:-

Welcome to Manthan

• Lush green campus (all covered with white)

• Abundant wildlife - Peacocks - (heard not seen by me), Snakes, including two pythons (mercifully not seen) and dogs - lots of them and friendly ones at that. 

• Something about, Heads will roll - this gladdened the very cockles of my heart - as, primarily it was not directed at us and as this was the only familiar language from the life that I was going  to leave behind .

   So we set off on a circular, sedate, perambulatory exploratory journey, much like Indiana Jones - wary and anticipatory of chance encounters with the reptilian wildlife (the whole campus is apparently set in some - 'logical' circular fashion) And - we managed to get lost again, and again and again. But lost just meant a couple of minutes before a friendly figure would emerge ghost like from the foggy white to point us in the right direction.

     At this point I'd not like disclose who are the other(s) who constitute "we".  Let me introduce some of my coursemates - sorry in the local parlance - batchmates. All 48 of them, some are introduced below.

Dramatis Personae : 

Me-Butter won't melt in my mouth - gyani baba ( spend half an minute with me and I'll tell you everything that you want to and don't need to know)

The Orator-we all are budding/aspiring- Jai Bakshi Ji

The Meek one - Yaaron da yaar. Can remain still and silent for prolonged periods (between each nano second)
The Buddy (of the Meek and all in general) - The meek shall inherit the earth

Mr Funnyman - a joke for all occasions, wanted or unwanted

Nuclea- not the DJ wala bhaiya, the brainiac

Prince Charming - Lightly he steps, hunter killer - sorry ladies- he's married (Beware)

Rock Solid - Need I say more. Correlation and logic his forte
The Chosen One - Neo anyone!!
Pun-dit-ji - Dit by dit, sorry, bit by bit this Media Savvy Sage will Communicate all
The Yoda - meditation is based on an experience call self realisation
Bindas - Jovial, Fun loving and carefree - Butter - hai kya? I love butter ( one of the many food stuff available in abundance in the Mess)

The Cool ( as Cumber) 1 - suave

The Cool 2

Other Cool ones - to be (de)classified later

The Cowboy - wears thin half sleeved Tee's in the arctic too. Jim's Gym and footer partner. The cool dude

The Jimnast - his gym routine will kill you, if not his looks. 

The Fighter Pilot- There's an old mucht used tag line/joke - how do you recognize a fighter jock in a room - Well, he'll tell ya
The Red Baron - for those who know history, he's not a fighter pilot, but smooth and dapper as the moniker

The others who shall be introduced in a later chapter

    So long till next time when we shall meet the other characters 

        

Rediscovering  Shahaj YOGA