Go IIFT Go- Life of an MBA

30th June, 2014 was the day I landed on the IIFT campus with dreams of success, feelings of excitement and a sense of achievement inside. Little did I know that life was going to flip by 180 degrees. It all started with waking up in early mornings, getting ready for college in our suits and running to catch the bus, successfully on some days and less so on the other. Be it the sensation of sweat trickling down the forehead or getting wet in the unexpected drizzle of Kolkata rain. They all became a part of the puzzle I called my daily life. Sooner than I could realize the hectic MBA journey of which I had only vaguely heard of, had started.

The first week was a bit on the lighter side in terms of work load. Introductory sessions and guest lectures dominated the mandate. But after that, there was no looking back. Suddenly the days seemed to be shorter than usual and whenever I could catch anything more than 4 hours of sleep, I got the feeling of winning a battle. Needless to say, it seemed like a never-ending cycle of assignments, deadlines, lectures, case studies, PDP session: You name it, I had it.

92 new faces, 8 new subjects and sleepless nights were all that seemed to be true in the world. LinkedIn became the new Facebook, e-mail the new Google Talk and the cutting down of my resume to half a page was a disorienting experience. The late night assignments haunted me and the number “23:59:59” occupied a significant share of my mindscape. Home was missed like never before and the daily phone call with Mom after returning to the hostel seemed like the only thing keeping me on my feet. I wanted to go back home. No one except her understood what I was going through. And it was her words of encouragement and motivation that kept me going. The quotes from my favourite movie 3 Idiots was often reminded of “Life is a race, if you don’t run fast you will be left behind”. Time, however, stops for no man. The rat race for club coordinator selection, the never-ending fight for “CV points”, competitions both inter- and intra-college and last but not the least, course quizzes: Life was damn busy and moving. The interesting part was that there was always a tomorrow but no day-after-tomorrow. Perhaps one becomes myopic after joining a business school and so had I. Checking mails nearly every hour became a habit.