A home away from home

It has been barely more than a week since I reached ISB, and I honestly have to think hard to remember all that happened here - only because a lot has been happening!

To begin at the beginning, registration on April 11th sapped me out of all my energy. Every counter (loan, medical insurance, etc etc) was characterised by a long serpentine queue of hapless and lost souls. For a batch of 570-odd people, we learnt quite early that queues would be an inevitable part of our experience. Add to that my extreme discomfort in Hyderabad summer. (I must be 4 shades darker already and 2 inches lesser due to dehydration). Luckily for me, I had already got my education loan sanctioned earlier by arriving in Hyderabad in advance just for that purpose. After my parents left for Bangalore that evening, I relaxed a bit in my room. I have 3 house-mates in a 4-bedroom "quad". We, then, made our way to be addressed by our Dean. Dinner, of course, followed. The grind began the day after.

Our Orientation week or O-week was jam-packed to facilitate a lot of interaction within people of our batch and the alums. We started off with a treasure hunt to enable us to know every nook and corner of the campus. We were teamed with our study-group mates and the corresponding group of another section. I had to "retire hurt" midway through this because of my bad leg. :( I, then, got bored out of mind while the rest of the group was running about figuring out the clues, until I got a major brainwave and landed myself in front of a internet-enabled computer in the lab! :D The treasure hunt ended with a customary dunk in the pool - which I missed, of course.

I'm a bit fuzzy on the actual order of events, but I do remember a lot of formal presentations by the professional and social clubs followed by informal sessions. More than anything else, these sessions instilled the discipline in me to be able to sit in one place for a considerably long time. Having spent a long time away from academics, this was one skill I had to re-learn. We also had a team-building event spanning a whole day. It was professionally organised and every "game" was designed in a way to provide entertainment and a deeper lesson towards working as a team. It was a novel way of introducing team-work in a new set of people who hardly know each other.

Somewhere along the way, we were divided into sections, as well. I am in the brand new G section. We had a Talent Nite towards the end of O-week which was, basically, an inter-section competition. I am being very modest, but section G did put up a really original and awesome show. We even had an original song (created and composed by some of the more talented amongst us). During this night, we also realised how our alums took our trip - first with an SV change request form and then with a supposed psychometric test. The video recordings were hilarious! Hats off to them!

Did I forget to mention the parties? We have had 3 official parties until now, already - with so many other random parties (SV party, poker party, etc). I must say that we do know how to bring about balance in our lives. As our alums advised us - Work hard, Play harder - seems to be the motto.