Time

It's that simple four letter word around which our lives revolve at ISB. It controls our day and our night, our sleep and our action. Without time, life at ISB would have been incomplete - time gives meaning to our existence at ISB. That's what the philosophically minded folks would say. In my opinion though, time is pure evil. Satan's invention intended to cause ulcers to MBA students. And ISB is its favorite haunt. We understand the meaning of Just-In-Time through practical experience.

With so much to do, we prioritize and organize to the minutest detail. Assignments are pushed back to the day before submission. The actual deadline though is hilarious. Imagine the scene - 8 AM on a Monday morning. You're in the atrium at 7:45 enjoying a nice warm breakfast, proud that you slogged through the night for the submission, yet feeling guilty that you had to leave it till so late.

And then you see inspiration running towards you - a fellow ISBian in PJs and all, half groggy, a handwritten assignment in three different inks, writing tilted at a 45-degree angle. "Give me a god-damned stapler!! Whaddaya mean you don't have one ?! I tell you, carrying staplers should be made mandatory - just like I-cards." 10 minutes to go. You hear frantic shuffling as the masses gather to deposit their pieces of wisdom in the drop box. I hear sighs of frustration, mingled with exhaustion. 5 minutes - and the rush turns into a flood. TAs emerge, to claim their property. "Damn, I forgot to attach the Excel sheet - puuuuuhllllleeeezzzzzz can you extend the deadline while I fly back ?". And with the final drop, the torture ends. It's now in the hands of the almighty TAs to strike down a night's effort with the stroke of a red pen. Cruelty knows no bounds.

But there's no relief - the 8:15 class beckons. What's it today ? Management of Organizations ? There was a pre-read ? What ? 45 pages, there goes my CP ! A cuppa in one hand, out comes the course pack and you hear random words like "enterpreneurial networks", "cognitive biases" etc. You take a deep breath. Considering that you have risen above the mortal maya of puny CP marks, you congratulate yourself on not having read a single word. What's more, you are confident that nobody else has either, which means we're all in the same boat thanks to relative grading - No tenshun.

So begins another crazy day. The prof tries his/her best to make us see light - but alas, halfway through class, most of the students are in various stages of dozing off - CP be damned. Sometimes though, you hear absolute gems of knowledge that truly brings "insight" to those who were unfortunately awake.

I hear snores emnating from the guy next to me. Nice. Four hours later, positively refreshed, we head off for the real education - study groups, meeting, clubs and parties.

C'est la vie