So I got this idea from an initiative called the 100 days of Happiness that I recently completed. It required me to post a photo of any one event in the day that made me happy. Well, at the end of it, I cant say the happiness increased in magnitude but it sure changed the way I perceived happiness. So I am hoping to continue this in this blog of mine where I will try to capture the interesting and happy moments during my stay in IFMR Sri City campus. So hear goes!
With difficulty in sleeping mainly due to sweat and heat, I had to get out of bed early. I got up at 5.30 am and decided to beat the heat with a morning walk. Talking this wisely constructed pathway all along the college fence, it took me half an hour to complete an entire loop around the College campus. And all I could see was the barren lands. The soil not favoring many trees, and sand all over. I was stranded. Stranded in a Island that has no coast. No flora and a vast desert. This was definitely not something I had hoped to realize the very first day of my college.
With the morning chores done, I headed to College hoping for a decent breakfast. My roommate Nipeksh's dad did not let me pay for it. Yes our college, after collecting 12 lakhs for fees, still couldnt manage to host the parents and their food in that money. Guess thats what you expect from a leading college which teaches Financial Management. It seemed even more unfair when the food was not upto the standards. Among the Idly, Sambar, Chutney, Upma, Tea and Watermelon the only thing edible was the Water melon. My views on it changed soon when I saw the servers' sweat falling all over the water melon bowl! All my mind was thinking, we just have to survive!
I had been really fortunate to find out that the Managing director of Ti Cycles Mr. L Ramkumar was the Chief guest for the inauguration. Meeting Mr. Ramkumar was like meeting the head of my dream company and hopefully I will be placed in Tube Investments. His speech started off with assurances about IFMR's faculty before moving on to management. He explained about the three main stakeholders for a manager Consumer Employee Owner, which also stands for CEO, which is the highest positions that we can attain. In a brief period he also released certain facts from his personal experiences and explained a bit about Tube Investments Ltd. Me being a cyclist, the likes of Tube Investments etc are dream companies to work. It was one of the companies that I mentioned in my IFMR interview along with Decathlon as my target placement companies atleast for the Summer placements. I thought I will quickly have a word with Mr Ramkumar on the Import of Manufacturing Technology after the Indian contingent visit to the Taipei bicycle expo. But to my luck, I could not have any word with him and he left right after his speech.
Immediately after his speech it was Dr Lakshmi Kumar who briefed us on the Academic guidelines. Dr Lakshmi, like she looks is a no time waster. With sharp eyes and a disciplined speech, she is always to the point. She speaks off her mind, no here there, just it is what it is. Although the rules were pretty much obvious, the only thing that caught my mind was her words "We have to build the culture in SriCity". It was the desert I was interested in and not the ship we were sailing on. Places like Sricity, Auroville, Hampi etc have always made me curious as all have been in-fertile lands but the ruling party has made it into a land of interest economically through various means. Sricity I believe would be one such land in the future with all the industries, apartments, malls, schools, colleges to be built. And since it is a community built in the 21st century it has the advantages of proper planning and modern architecture.
Post Lakshmi mam's session, it was Col. Satya Saran who gave us the overview of Administrative guidelines. The Colonel is a man who has served the Indian army for 24 years and you can expect no less discipline from him. He is an excellent speaker and managed to tackle the students brilliantly. All the questions were answered yet no one managed to know that there was far less solutions given. He managed to control the crowd of 180 in a fascinating yet humorous manner and I was impressed. Negotiating with him is certainly a herculean task. Finally after a session ending with no promises and hopes of acclimatization to the conditions, we moved on to Lunch. The Lunch was no better than the Breakfast. Survive Survive was all that was on my mind. Got myself a local Airtel Sim card for 60 bucks in a shop thats inside the College building. To avoid the heat, we quickly moved on to the next session for which was the Ice breaker organized by our seniors from Batch 14. Well, it was interesting for the ones who wanted to make it so. There were games like name-Adjective, Adzap, some song and dance performances, introductions etc to ease us into the culture and make us light headed. It was 3 hours long and we had to sit on the floor with paining bums. Anyways, there were atleast some who enjoyed it a lot and Im glad for them.
The most interesting part of the day came when I went to meet my friend Sandeep in the evening. Sandeep is my friend from Chennai Trekking Club who has trekked with us many times and also part of the cycling club. We have also done quite a few Triathlons together. So we met at the business centre where he showed me the hall where he keeps his Roadbike (Roadbikes are cycles that are really costly) Fortunately the room had quite a lot of space and I decided that I'll keep my bikes there as well. But that was a reserve option if Col Satya Saran rejects my proposal to keep the cycles in the hostel. And I think it is quite likely he will reject my request. Anyways, we went to the roof of Business center and I had the magnificent views of SriCity. It was always the desert I was interested in. I could see horizons of industries, barren lands, forests, mountains, Canals and some small roads. Being from Scratch, Sricity has the opportunity to become even more planned that Cities like Chennai or Bangalore. But the only defiant would be to see if Money can overcome the weather. Sandeep told me about how the farmers on these lands have incurred losses for generations and the Sricity industrial hub was born. Also, this land had no water whatsoever and the few lakes here dried up soon. The drinking water canal that feeds water from Krishna to Chennai called Telugu Ganga also feeds some of the Dams in Sricity. The canals of water that I was witnessing was the water from these Canals. Sandeep had even promised to take me swimming there one time. Lets hope the local population are not as notorious as he describes and do not mind me swimming in their canals for some training. I managed to take my first picture after reaching the Sricity campus and decided I will restart the one pic a day tradition. so here is to the desert that I am stranded on for the next 730 days.
Not to forget the dinner and it was Rice and some Gobi Manchurian which was the first meal of the day which was edible. Thinking about it, the college has literally forced us with everything. There is no AC in the room and hence you stay in class. The food is bad and hence you dont ask for more/go thin/dont fight for it. The internet and wifi connectivity is poor and hence you are forced to read the books. The place is a desert so you tend not to stray. Kudos! only a day gone by and I am already with such optimism. Lets see how far this optimist in me stays alive.
With difficulty in sleeping mainly due to sweat and heat, I had to get out of bed early. I got up at 5.30 am and decided to beat the heat with a morning walk. Talking this wisely constructed pathway all along the college fence, it took me half an hour to complete an entire loop around the College campus. And all I could see was the barren lands. The soil not favoring many trees, and sand all over. I was stranded. Stranded in a Island that has no coast. No flora and a vast desert. This was definitely not something I had hoped to realize the very first day of my college.
With the morning chores done, I headed to College hoping for a decent breakfast. My roommate Nipeksh's dad did not let me pay for it. Yes our college, after collecting 12 lakhs for fees, still couldnt manage to host the parents and their food in that money. Guess thats what you expect from a leading college which teaches Financial Management. It seemed even more unfair when the food was not upto the standards. Among the Idly, Sambar, Chutney, Upma, Tea and Watermelon the only thing edible was the Water melon. My views on it changed soon when I saw the servers' sweat falling all over the water melon bowl! All my mind was thinking, we just have to survive!
I had been really fortunate to find out that the Managing director of Ti Cycles Mr. L Ramkumar was the Chief guest for the inauguration. Meeting Mr. Ramkumar was like meeting the head of my dream company and hopefully I will be placed in Tube Investments. His speech started off with assurances about IFMR's faculty before moving on to management. He explained about the three main stakeholders for a manager Consumer Employee Owner, which also stands for CEO, which is the highest positions that we can attain. In a brief period he also released certain facts from his personal experiences and explained a bit about Tube Investments Ltd. Me being a cyclist, the likes of Tube Investments etc are dream companies to work. It was one of the companies that I mentioned in my IFMR interview along with Decathlon as my target placement companies atleast for the Summer placements. I thought I will quickly have a word with Mr Ramkumar on the Import of Manufacturing Technology after the Indian contingent visit to the Taipei bicycle expo. But to my luck, I could not have any word with him and he left right after his speech.
Immediately after his speech it was Dr Lakshmi Kumar who briefed us on the Academic guidelines. Dr Lakshmi, like she looks is a no time waster. With sharp eyes and a disciplined speech, she is always to the point. She speaks off her mind, no here there, just it is what it is. Although the rules were pretty much obvious, the only thing that caught my mind was her words "We have to build the culture in SriCity". It was the desert I was interested in and not the ship we were sailing on. Places like Sricity, Auroville, Hampi etc have always made me curious as all have been in-fertile lands but the ruling party has made it into a land of interest economically through various means. Sricity I believe would be one such land in the future with all the industries, apartments, malls, schools, colleges to be built. And since it is a community built in the 21st century it has the advantages of proper planning and modern architecture.
Post Lakshmi mam's session, it was Col. Satya Saran who gave us the overview of Administrative guidelines. The Colonel is a man who has served the Indian army for 24 years and you can expect no less discipline from him. He is an excellent speaker and managed to tackle the students brilliantly. All the questions were answered yet no one managed to know that there was far less solutions given. He managed to control the crowd of 180 in a fascinating yet humorous manner and I was impressed. Negotiating with him is certainly a herculean task. Finally after a session ending with no promises and hopes of acclimatization to the conditions, we moved on to Lunch. The Lunch was no better than the Breakfast. Survive Survive was all that was on my mind. Got myself a local Airtel Sim card for 60 bucks in a shop thats inside the College building. To avoid the heat, we quickly moved on to the next session for which was the Ice breaker organized by our seniors from Batch 14. Well, it was interesting for the ones who wanted to make it so. There were games like name-Adjective, Adzap, some song and dance performances, introductions etc to ease us into the culture and make us light headed. It was 3 hours long and we had to sit on the floor with paining bums. Anyways, there were atleast some who enjoyed it a lot and Im glad for them.
The most interesting part of the day came when I went to meet my friend Sandeep in the evening. Sandeep is my friend from Chennai Trekking Club who has trekked with us many times and also part of the cycling club. We have also done quite a few Triathlons together. So we met at the business centre where he showed me the hall where he keeps his Roadbike (Roadbikes are cycles that are really costly) Fortunately the room had quite a lot of space and I decided that I'll keep my bikes there as well. But that was a reserve option if Col Satya Saran rejects my proposal to keep the cycles in the hostel. And I think it is quite likely he will reject my request. Anyways, we went to the roof of Business center and I had the magnificent views of SriCity. It was always the desert I was interested in. I could see horizons of industries, barren lands, forests, mountains, Canals and some small roads. Being from Scratch, Sricity has the opportunity to become even more planned that Cities like Chennai or Bangalore. But the only defiant would be to see if Money can overcome the weather. Sandeep told me about how the farmers on these lands have incurred losses for generations and the Sricity industrial hub was born. Also, this land had no water whatsoever and the few lakes here dried up soon. The drinking water canal that feeds water from Krishna to Chennai called Telugu Ganga also feeds some of the Dams in Sricity. The canals of water that I was witnessing was the water from these Canals. Sandeep had even promised to take me swimming there one time. Lets hope the local population are not as notorious as he describes and do not mind me swimming in their canals for some training. I managed to take my first picture after reaching the Sricity campus and decided I will restart the one pic a day tradition. so here is to the desert that I am stranded on for the next 730 days.
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| Sunset from atop SriCity Business Centre |
Not to forget the dinner and it was Rice and some Gobi Manchurian which was the first meal of the day which was edible. Thinking about it, the college has literally forced us with everything. There is no AC in the room and hence you stay in class. The food is bad and hence you dont ask for more/go thin/dont fight for it. The internet and wifi connectivity is poor and hence you are forced to read the books. The place is a desert so you tend not to stray. Kudos! only a day gone by and I am already with such optimism. Lets see how far this optimist in me stays alive.
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