“So much to do….. So little time…”
These words don’t make much sense do they? But trust me; if you take your “time” out to read through this rather “long” article, I am sure you will be able to understand what I mean. If you are unable to understand the meanings of some words that are mentioned here, feel free to go to the end of the article, where the meanings of some words exclusive to XIMB, are given. So without further delay, I start the proceedings…
It started off at 7.00 am in the morning. I was awoken from sleep by the sunlight coming in through the curtains. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have got up before 8 o’clock, but I had gone to sleep at 11.30 pm the previous night, and our bodies had adjusted themselves to a mere 5 hours of sleep everyday. As it was too early, I decided to go back to sleep. It was then that it struck me. There was a Comm. Quiz at 11.30 am. “Damn! Why didn’t I go through the presentation slides last night?” So I decided to get up and make “Optimum Utilization" of the available time.
I got my lappy and started hurrying through the slides. But my attention was diverted towards other things - the video clips and flash movies in those presentations! I wasted most of my time, but was able to finish about 80% of the work.
Then started the daily morning rituals of XIMB. Me, the so called “X-ALARM”, waking everyone up in my wing, then hastily having the usual bread & omelet for breakfast and running to the “Acads Block” for the OB class at 9.
The classroom was half empty when Father entered. It was probably because of the OB Quiz in the evening, which was earlier shifted due to repeated requests from students who thought they’ll score a 10 on 10 by studying for another couple of days, which is effectively 6 more hours as per the XIMB standards. Or maybe it was because we had 2 companies coming for the Summer Recruitment Programme on the same day.
This lack of attendance resulted in yet another “Surprise Quiz”, which, as absurd as it may sound, was described by father as “Reward for those Present, Not Punishment for those Absent”. Now that’s Organizational Behaviour at work. I thought it was a good start to the day as I would get 4-5 extra marks in OB, which would reduce my chances of getting an ‘F’ grade in that paper. But the real surprises were yet to be revealed.
After the usual “Questionnaire” analysis and self-assessment-filled OB class, we rushed back to the hostel even without taking our daily dose of “Chai”, which was like engine oil – driving us and keeping us awake in the class…. Well almost always.
10.30 am – 1 hour to prepare for Comm. Again that theory of “Optimum Utilization of Time” was put into action. We discussed the remaining topics and marched towards the Acads. Block, as if on a mission.
We had to wait outside the classroom as CR-6 was already occupied with another batch of students, attending the Comm. Quiz. It was not before we were drenched in sweat and warned at least a couple of times by Maam’s secretary, that the previous batch came out and we got the chance to move into the classroom.
I asked a guy who had just attended the quiz, and he said that the quiz was objective and “OK” type. “Yes!!!! Nothing to worry about, I’ll be able to attend some questions” I thought. This notion vanished pretty quickly the moment I saw the paper. Honestly, it wasn’t that tough, but for guys like me, it was like hell!! Eventually, finding no other alternative, I decided to cheat – “Beating the System” – as we call it here in XIMB. So I whispered to the guy beside me. But to add to my woes, Maam caught us red handed and deducted our marks. If getting a zero in the test wasn’t enough, I managed to get a negative score. The day that had started off so well wasn’t looking that rosy anymore.
Dejected, I started towards the hostel. Suddenly, it started to rain. The scene was just like in the movies - the Hero is broken and it rains, adding to his agony. Hey, I’m not calling myself a hero, but just emphasizing on the irony of my situation. I reached the hostel, took my food, and went back to my room.
1.00pm – I didn’t even get the time to take a bath, as we had the pre-placement talks at 1.30pm and we had to shave and wear a “Business Suit” for the “Special” occasion. Although, it takes only 20 minutes to get fully dressed up, we like to have a few minutes at hand in case anything goes wrong. It was then that I remembered another thing. I had forgotten to apply for a company the previous day. This was a classic example of “what may go wrong” and why I like to keep a few minutes at hand. So, in that limited time, I finished the pending work and went out for the PPT.
The presentation was good, although a bit lengthy. As usual, the names of the candidates, who were short-listed for the GD, were announced and strangely, we were happy that we were not selected. The best part about the presentation was the free snacks we got. “God, let there be a presentation like this everyday” – I prayed: but then thought better off it. Snacks were just not enough to compensate for the pain that we had to go through while dressing up for the presentations.
2.15pm – Three and half hours to study for the OB Quiz. I came to my room, opened my notebook and started going through the theories proposed by various authors. As boring as they were, we still had to study them for the sake of passing in the exam. But the theories were just too lame….. I dozed off.
5.10pm – I came to my senses. “God! I’ve lost so much time!!” Just as I was about to start, one of my friends called me and told me that we had to meet a senior regarding some website designing work – another task in an already packed schedule. If the pot was full before, now it started to overflow! We decided to meet up after the OB quiz.
I then mugged up as much as could and performed the afternoon duties of “X-Alarm”. After waking up everyone, I went to the “Audi” for the quiz and this time, the paper was even tougher than the one in the morning – 2 visits to hell on the same day. I managed to solve some objective questions, but bluffed like anything when it came to the subjective part. Finally, the last quiz of the day…was over.
6.50pm – I had to wait for my friend to arrive so that we could go and meet our senior. The meeting was rather long than I had expected and I came back half way through since I had to wear my Business Suit again – which was no simple task. I hurried back, and in the next 5 minutes, I put my multi-tasking skills to the fullest effect, putting on my shoes, suit, doing my hair etc. Even Superman would have been put to shame by such agility.
7.30pm – Another round of PPT – another stint at the classroom. This presentation was rather short and sweet. It was over at 8.10pm. Then when others went to relax and cool off, I still had some things left to do. I had to go to bring gifts and a cake for a friend, whose birthday we had planned to celebrate in a grand, but typical XIMB style. (Note: The details of the Birthday Bash process at XIMB is beyond the scope of this article – you just have to see it to believe it.)
So we went to the cake shop, then the Archies showroom, and we were so indulged in selecting a gift that we didn’t realize how much time we had spent there. By the time we returned, it was 9.30pm. I had my dinner and went to check the one thing that always wakes you up, no matter how tired you are – the “Student Notice Board”. To my utter disbelief, there was another committee meeting at 11.00pm that night, which meant I could not be there to make the preparations for the birthday, i.e. the poster and other weird ‘surprise’ stuff. I planned to hurry back as soon as the meeting was over, since the celebrations would start at 12.
When the meeting started, I thought that it would get over soon and I would be on time for the bash. But that did not happen. Because of some miscommunication between the members and some really long discussions, the meeting extended beyond 12. Even our group coordinator had not come to the meeting because of fever. The discussion was going nowhere, and yet we just had to sit there and listen to the same old stuff. My friends called me up at 12, telling me to come for the bash. But I was under the impression that the meeting would end soon, so I told them to wait for 15 more minutes.
But the debates and doubts were endless. Eventually, when it was 12.40pm, and there were no signs of the meeting ending, I decided to make a move. It was already too late and I came running back….only to find that all the fun and celebrations were over. All that remained were the ‘Happy Birthday’ chants from a small group of friends. Most of the guys that were expected to come were absent due to other committee meetings. All the plans that I had made for the celebration, vanished into thin air at that very moment.
“OK”, I said to myself. I could not attend the Hostel Birthday Celebration. But I will attend the B-Block Birthday Bash (4B). “I will not miss out on our little block party.”
1.30pm – This was the time when I finally got some time to relax since the previous night. We had brought some drinks with us. We enjoyed them and discussed about the day that had, at last, come to an end. We shared our sorrows and happiness. There’s a saying that happiness increases by sharing, and sadness decreases. It surely did this time. It made me forget all my tensions. It made me feel like I was in heaven, after a day in hell.
After an hour of “Floating in Heaven”, we were distracted by some noises coming from the Acads Block. We came to know that the list of the candidates who were recruited had been announced. We congratulated them like they had returned victorious from some war against the companies’ HR guys. Then other students started to beat the hell out of the successful guys, as is the trend in XIMB. “We were beaten when we were recruited. So why should you be spared?” But our group did not get involved in that bashing. We were too tired for that. We were enjoying the way we like best.
2.00pm – just as we were about to call it a day, another alarm was raised. Another notice had come in the popular “Student Notice Board” that there would be two more companies coming the next day: and the schedules of the PPTs were such that either we had to miss our classes, or miss our lunch. The last surprise of the day had been revealed at last.
But PPTs were not my only source of concern. We had to start working on a management game which was scheduled to take place at Xpressions. We had our Comm. presentations coming up in the next week; not to mention the HR and MC quizzes that would be conducted in a couple of days. We had to prepare for them, otherwise we were likely to fail in those papers.
“So much to do….. So little time…”
These words make sense now, don’t they?
3.30pm – I am in my room, sitting in front of my computer, typing down what you are reading right now. And as I am finishing writing this, I am glad that the day has come to an end. It was a long day; a long day indeed. But there was nothing special about it: nothing out of the ordinary. We have to go through these type of things everyday. That’s what we are taught to do.
This day, was just another day at the office…
Just another normal day…
Just another day at XIMB.
- Sumit Das
Explanations:
Comm: Communications
MC: Managerial Computing
HR: Human Resource
OB: Organizational Behavior
Questionnaire: A paper that analyses your personality and gives the wrong results 90% of the time.
Acads Block: Academic Block
X-Alarm: Person who is given the responsibility of waking up everyone in his wing.
PPT: Pre-placement talks
Audi: Auditorium
CR-1: Class room-1
Beating the System: Using alternative means to achieve more marks.
Xpressions: The Annual Festival of XIMB.
XIMB: You don’t deserve to read this article if you don’t know what XIMB means.
