Week 16 - Last minute thoughts

Week 16! Big milestone this week, our TRBS Marketing team is now complete. We’ve gone from three people to a strong team of twelve. With so many talented folks on board, it feels even more exciting to be, as we like to call it, the face of Asia’s biggest management symposium.

Another happy twist, our Academic Representative (and a close friend) somehow managed to convince the authorities to shift all Friday classes to Thursday. The result? A completely free Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That opened the door for a lot of people to head home for Raksha Bandhan.

I wasn’t sure if I should go. My to-do list was staring at me: deadlines, pending tasks, and a bunch of things that had been waiting for months. With no tickets booked, I decided to leave the decision to Thursday… and to IRCTC’s mercy in granting me a Tatkal ticket.

In the middle of all this, my introvert side faced its own nightmare. We had an impromptu speaking session in the MC class. The format: you’re given a random situation, you get 60 seconds to think, and then you speak for two minutes. And let me tell you, two minutes here feels longer than two minutes in a plank hold. With my anxiety climbing every time a name was called, I ended up being the last one picked. With my inherent need to be funny in such situations, I tried to lighten the mood with a bit of humour, got a couple of laughs, and wrapped up my speech in 70 seconds. Shorter than expected, but a win in my books.

Then came Wednesday morning. Class had just ended, it was 10:00 AM, and there I was, IRCTC site open, tickets available for Thursday night to Mumbai - still torn between family time and catching up on work. A little nudge from the person next to me, and I booked the tickets. The happiest reaction on this came from my parents, which was all the validation I needed.

Thursday was stacked, two Macroeconomics and two Leadership Skills classes. But honestly, even the weight of international fiscal policies couldn’t dent my excitement about going home. After class, before leaving for Mumbai, my dorm neighbour and I decided to host a Pav Bhaji evening for a few friends. This also escalated into a box cricket session in the dorm corridor. A party with pav bhaji and cricket? Sounds exactly like the kind of party I’d host.

That night, I was off to Mumbai. The next three days were blissfully simple, sleeping and eating all my favourite foods. Probably the most relaxing trip home since I joined IIM. Like most friends who’d gone home, I returned to campus on Sunday night. We waited to meet each other like we’d been apart for months, even though it had just been a couple of days.

And in that happy moment, a small thought crossed my mind, someday, we’ll have to say goodbye to this campus, to this life where we meet our friends five times a day. I’m not sure how we’ll deal with that. But for now, we still have eight more months to make the most of what we might call in future "the good old days".