It was a day in January of 1996 when I attended my school (10th std.) for a whole day for the last time. Since then, it was today that I spent 10 a.m. to 6 p.m, (other than the lunch break) in a classroom. my junior college was very lax, as was COEP. Considering all this, I must say, I didn't feel mentally bushed.

Of course, what went on today was just introductory lectures and speeches. There was the opening welcome by the effusive Chairman of IIML, Dr. Pritam, Singh whjo kept switching to Sanskrit. This was followed by a hard-as-nails terse welcome by Prof Bhattacharya, who is the PGP Chairman, and the man in charge of us. He told us a long list of DOs and DONTs (the former outnumbering the latter by a wide margin) and warned us to be on our best behavious. This was followed by a thoroughly entertaining and informative lecture by Dr. Chakraborty who gave us a general idea of what the 20 month course would be like. He was hilarious and kept witty comments. My favourite one was "Man acts rationally only when all other options have been exhausted". After this giggle-fest, we had a proffy telling us about the facilities and he promised us a swimming pool within 6 months. He was a very helpful guy and at the end he announced that 30th June, the insti would take us on a sight-seeing tour of Lucknow city. He told us to be there at 7:30 in the morning so that we could come back at 4:30 in time for the football World Cup final, which would be beamed on a big screen in a hall where the whole insti would watch it together.

I wonder if this is the customary 'fattening of the calf' before slaughtering it.

The next lecture was about books/movies other than those in the curriculum that all MBAs should read. It had Ayn Rand's 'Atlas Shrugged', Scott Adams' "The Dilbert Principle" and even, aaplya Ashutoshcha "Lagaan". He also told us that the next 20 months would be excdruciating and we would do well to remember that many before us have survived and we will too.

There is a party or something at 10 tonite. I also have to read up a case study for tomorrow.

Hey people, is my blog seeming more like a blog and less like a column nowadays?