From the archives...

Here is a humorous account of a day in ISB... Written by one from the second batch... Dug it out from my mails today... enjoy!

06:30 alarm goes off.
06:45 at least a couple of other people in the block have been woken up.
07:00 “The damn alarm”. “No, this is not the best of days to hit the gym; will start from tomorrow”. Hit the snooze button for now and go back to sleep.
08:15 “Damn it, how the hell did I turn the alarm off when all I wanted was a 10 minute snooze? damn you alarm”
“Who the hell designs such clocks, I wonder. These guys sure need a lesson or two to keep the snooze and off buttons distinct”. Swear again.
08:20 Get out of bed. “Bligh me, Why the hell do I have to work so hard?”
08:30 Reality strikes - “Planned on reading the case this morning”.
Worse still – a faint remembrance of a promise to print off and submit the assignment. “Damn, why the hell do I have to take all the initiative?”
(Considering that our man did not have a part to play in the assignment itself, submitting it is the least he can do)
08:45 Showered, dressed and out. Run to the academic centre.
Exchange “Hi”, “Hello” on the way. “Hmmm… some of these women sure are beautiful”.
The semblance of feminity has by now sent spirits sky high. “Beautiful day, beautiful flowers... beautiful everything”
08:55 head for breakfast; long queue. “I hate this. Whoever is that Herbie…?”
08:57 grab a muffin, a cup of coffee and run.
09:00 Print off the assignment due for submission. “Now, how do I get out of this labyrinth? Which way is ACx? Never mind, I’ll just ask”.
09:05 Settle down for the lecture, unsettling at least a couple of people on the way.
Yawn. Munch muffin. Sip coffee.
09:15 Connect laptop and check e-mail. Log-in to MSN, Yahoo messenger, rediff bol and every other messaging software. Check news, sports, weather.
Refresh, check for e-mail again (might get one of those “mission critical” e-mails you see).
09:30 Perverted day dreams
09:40 “Oops. Close call; the guy in the next seat got cold called; better pay attention”.
Raise hand and make a long winded statement which somehow gets the professor’s appreciation.
“Hee hee…Not a bad point for some one who has not read the case”
09:57 Hunger pangs. Join the mass exodus leaving the room. Head for breakfast.
The bemused professor declares a 10 minute break.
10:20 Sanity prevails and the class gets underway.
Sign the attendance sheet. “Strange morning this - no jokes, cartoons on the attendance sheet. I hope all is well with my class mates.
Or is this MBA finally getting to them? Nah, must just be an off-day”
10:30 Try and plan for the day. “No, getting too tough. Let me not bite off more than what I can chew. One thing at a time is all I’ll do”
Send out a meeting request for a case discussion later that evening.
10:40 Music to the ears – favourite babe speaks.
Wonder why women with long hair are so pretty.
10:47 Yawn, sleep, snore, dream.
11:00 Wake up. “Boy, how long can an hour get?”
Lecture ends.
For the next 15 minutes, live life kings size. Kings size cigarette that is.
Get to know life on the queen’s side. Flirt that is.
11:15 Another lecture. Ditto.
01:15 Pm -Check schedule for the day, before it is too late.
Instant bout of depression: too much work for the day.
“Did I make a mistake in setting up that meeting today? One of those grade conscious guys in the group would have done the assignment anyway. Silly me”
01:25 Lunch. “I’ll stick to low fat, protein rich diets today”. Fill the plate with sprouts, peas etc.
Counsel the guy opposite on why he should have more of proteins.
Taste the first morsel. “Ahhh… This lunch sucks. What was I thinking when I picked all this up?”
Commitment & consistency – “got to eat now”. Damn Cialdini.
“Or may be I could just wait until this guy finishes”. Get stuck into the brownies and ice cream a little later.
01:50 Belch. “May be I ate one too many of those brownies”
02:00 Send out an e-mail to at least 4 people, inviting them for a game of tennis at 4:00 in the evening.
02:05 catch some sleep. “Have been working my ass off, I sure need some rest”
04:30 Turn up for tennis. Just one other guy there, “Lazy jerks, must be sleeping”.
Decline to play singles. Too demanding - “Who the hell can cover an entire tennis court on his own?”
04:45 Hunger pangs again – banana milk shake at The Café.
Gossip.
05:15 Check e-mail. Too many spam e-mails these days. “I am not taking this lying down” – contribute to the spam.
05:30 Send some more spams, this time without any subject.
06:00 Team meeting for the case submission.
Déjà vu: One step forward, two steps back.
“Nobody listens. These guys need to improve their listening skills.
I made a perfectly logical argument; well an almost perfectly valid argument except for the fact that cause and effect were not really linked”
So much for diversity - “The accountant’s world ends with numbers. The economist keeps going back to his ideal world of demand and supply curves.
The marketing guy wants to make a qualitative decision and twist (rather than build) numbers to support the decision.
Personally, I just want this meeting to end and end soon”
07:00 Discussion still on.
Time to play the trump card – “If you cannot convince people, confuse them”
Yell. Berate.
08:30 Somehow work is split. “My part is the exec summary and the conclusion. Got away this time!”
08:35 Dinner. No discourse this time - All taste no gyaan.
09:30 Thirst attacks. Alcoholic thirst that is. Check e-mail to be sure you haven’t missed out on one of those booze parties.
Just the lone email from CAS; Shift+Del – way too many spams these days!
10:30 Wait for group mates to send in their bits for the assignment.
Use cutting edge technology (read as Cntrl c and Cntrl v) to populate executive summary and conclusion paragraphs.
Send out the completed report and ask someone else to print off and submit. “Done my bit for this report.
Surely, I can’t be the one running around to get this printed”
11:50 Friend calls in to remind you about the application deadlines for the day. “Jerk, couldn’t he have called earlier?
Or may be I should read e-mails sent by the CAS office before I delete them.
Ahh… don’t blame yourself, you get 10 spams for every reasonable e-mail. How can you even tell?”

11:55:46 Get to work heart in mouth. Search for the last EOI. Change all “marketing” to “finance”. Change all “managerial” to “leadership”.
Change all “XYZ Ltd” to “ABC Ltd”. Change all…
“Whom should this letter be addressed to?”
“One of these days, I am going to write a generic EOI saying ‘to whom so ever this may concern’ for now let me stick to Manager HR”.
11:57:45 God, MS-Word takes ages to save a document. Damn word.
11:58:15 Adobe is even worse in converting files. Damn Adobe.
11:58:55 Log-in to the CAS website. Once again huge latency problems - the web-site does not live up to the speed demanded by the user.
“Got to give this feedback to CAS”.
11:59:55 “Phew, close shave!”. Done with uploading the EOI.

12:00 Gloat at the achievement - “Am I not a master in operational excellence? I bet no one else on campus would have achieved my Just In Time finesse”
12:05 Time to kick ass - quite a few birthday boys. Head for the swimming pool and kick ass really hard. Make sure he wakes up with a swollen ass.
2:30 Well, all is well that ends swell. Hit the bed; need to be up for another gruelling day.