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Recommendations

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English Section
Adios Santoshkumar Nair year before, I remember telling my boss that I was A quitting my job and going for a one year program at IIM Calcutta. To say that he was surprised would be a massive understatement. Disbelief is more what I thought it was. And he was not the only one. Many of my friends and acquaintances also had similar expressions when I narrated my plan. After all - who throws away a nice job, leaves his family and a young kid behind for further studies that costs a nice packet. Courageous or foolish – that only time will tell. However, here I am - a year later – reminiscing about my time here at Joka. Eleven years ago, I thought that I had seen the inside of a classroom for the last time; that there were no more exams to be answered. And here I was – driving into the gates of a campus renowned as the “finance campus of the country” – woefully ill-equipped. April is undoubtedly the most boring month in “Joka Management” (as the taxi drivers call it) when the vast majority of its residents have left it in search of their future calling. It is at this time that we came into the institute with just the professors and a few students for company – and, how can I forget, a large pile of books. Books that you wished you had read rather than kept as a showpiece on the table – reinforced after surprise quizzes, complex assignments or even more complex examinations. Imagine your feelings when the multiple choice question paper in front of you has 8 options for each question or when the “Information Technology” paper has a Discounted Cash Flow problem. I look back and try to find things that I would miss once I leave this place. A stream of thoughts comes through in seemingly random fashion. I’ll miss riding a cycle through the “Howrah Bridge” in a valiant effort to reach class on time. What about reaching class “just in time” – though the wall clock in the classroom says otherwise – to stares from the professors? How can the nightly “chai” sessions with the heated discussions and animated leg-pulling be replaced? The same goes for sleeping at unearthly hours and waking up at times that you are even ashamed of telling anybody. And should I even mention about religiously following the local tradition of an afternoon siesta whenever classes permit? Well, I’m just getting started. Another thing that I will remember Joka is for the environment that it gave me with which I finally got the urge to start writing. It is ironical that I started writing when the pressure on me was even greater than what it was in the corporate life and time at hand was even lesser than what I had earlier. This blew away the theory that it was lack of time that prevented me from writing. Starting out with posts on our group blog, joining Persona and Jokatimes, seeing my work in print and then moving on to short stories – there is something in the air here that gives an impetus to creativity. Hopefully, the desire to write continues after I leave the campus too. I continue flipping back the thoughts of the past year. How can I forget the very first haircut I had at the “saloon” outside the campus? After all, it led to a nickname that stuck through the year so much so that the nickname is more popular than the name itself -and to a much more expensive hair cut at Jawed Habib’s the next time around (but to no avail – the nickname stuck). Can I even describe the feeling of cycling halfway around the campus with friends in tow and having parathas and coffee (and playing a couple of games of table tennis while the parathas are being made) well past the midnight hour? And the flashbacks keep coming. Organizing the first ever cricket match of the PGPEX team with the faculty (well, the result was not memorable but I console myself with the lofty Olympic goals of “participation counts”); listening to Indian Ocean live (recording Kandisa and half crashing my poor mobile phone); being a part of the Golden Jubilee batch (never before and never after); partying all night at the Fresher’s Party (and ouch, getting up the morning after); playing badminton – albeit not so well (and almost ending up with a broken wrist). What a difference a year makes! People who were total strangers a year back are now best of buddies – bonds strengthened through the good and bad times shared together. And as I wind this down, I can’t help but think that while the story is mine, the state of mind would be something that each of us passing out from here share. 63 professors, 47 courses, 44 students, 7 terms, 1 year. PGPEX Class of 2012 - What a year this has been! We might not realize it, but there is a little bit of Joka that we take with us wherever we go next. 5
Page 1 and 2: inquest FEBRUARY a bi-monthly campu
Page 3: english section 5 Adios 6 IIM-C : T
Page 7 and 8: Change: the most treasured word in
Page 9 and 10: If I could just stand right here, A
Page 11 and 12: A place like this - Annanya Chakrav
Page 13 and 14: My Favourite IIMC Moment One of my
Page 15 and 16: एक भेंट एक भे
Page 17 and 18: जोका के पच्चे
Page 19 and 20: जोका के ननयार
Page 21 and 22: भरख यही है मे

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