By Ashwin Shenoy

Ashwin Shenoy is a 2^nd year MBA student at TAPMI and will complete in 2010.  Ashwin enjoys writing and biking.  Read Ashwin’s narration on a typical day at TAPMI.

“Wake up!” says my roommate nonchalantly “Its 8.30 already”. I don’t blame him, for this must have been the fifth time he’s tried to wake me up. I then analyze whether I have had my 6 hours quota of sleep, or whether I should sleep for another 10 minutes and magically fill that gap. Sparks of fear then arrive, and that fear is called “missing my attendance”.  I look at my watch and its 8.40. Abracadabra! Kazaam! and I am in my class sharp at 8.59 after a scrumptious breakfast treat at a place we call ‘The Glutton House’ a.k.a. Gopi Anna’s Mess.

I can spend about 30 minutes to describe a near perfect morning at TAPMI, a morning after which many of us here feel like having achieved the impossible. Lectures soon begin, covering a plethora of specializations from marketing, finance, operations and systems. Realizations strikes soon and the thoughts of not having slept enough keep troubling me. The ‘trouble’ soon turns into ‘haunt’, and I resort to a tactic, whereby I can successfully evade the professor’s sharp sight and catch a few winks.  If only it was so easy!  The professor just manages to pick the poor soul sitting beside me for an answer.  I later realize that the intent was to wake me up, and that a complete metamorphosis has transformed the ‘poor soul’ into an angry devil aiming to put my life in total jeopardy.  The clock then slowly crawls to 13:00 hours.  Yes! Its lunch time and the true genius of an MBA is put to test here.  Whom do you target in the line?  Who do you ask for a place under the fan?  How do you trick the attendant there into giving you two bowls of curd?  All this in well under 5 minutes.  You see, the industry demands quick decision making, man-management, location advantages and many other traits.  We just give everything bundled in a 20-20 format!

The second half is usually less populated with academic activities.  But in reality a lot of academic work is done here.  We begin to realize that the assignments are not as straightforward as they seemed in the beginning.  We also realize that we are not as equipped with resources as planned (some people in the group ‘claim’ to be tied up, or simply vanish!). However, it dawns upon the rest of us that this is actually where team building tactics and strategies take form.  The handful lot present selflessly takes the onus of shaping the assignment.  But oh!  I suddenly realize that the freshly inducted juniors are performing today.  I begin the clichéd ‘Cost Benefit Analysis’, weighing the pleasure of attending my first cultural performance as a senior, against the consequences of probably not finishing the assignment in time. Decision taken, cultural show it is, but now I’m confronted with the arduous task of having to ‘spin-the-yarn’ and convince my groupies that my services would no longer be available.  I manage to escape, but the moral of the story is: “What goes around comes around”: in lucid terms, the next assignment’s on me!

The cultural show is a big hit.  The juniors deliver a mesmerizing performance that left everyone craving for more.  Yes, I too get carried away, and the little hour’s hand of my watch makes me smell concrete.  It is 9 pm, and the day had just begun for me.  I call my groupies and enquire about the status of the assignment.  Two rings, a clearly irritated voice that said “it’s done” and a loud bang is all that I hear.  On the personal front, a pre-read, an individual submission, and my project report completion all beckon me straight to the hostel.  My conscience tells me “Shut the door and work like there’s no tomorrow”.  I enter my room, my roommate cracks a silly joke, a few others join the discussion, the most puerile jokes are targeted at the harmless ones and this goes on and on and on. End of the story for me and my scruples!

No exposition, however artful, can truly describe even a single day of life that we live and enjoy at TAPMI.  Yes, detailing is possible, but the emotions, happiness, joy, sorrow, hardships, togetherness are ubiquitous and kaleidoscopic, just like the breaths of fresh air that we inhale on our green hill-valley campus and are truly ineffable.  That’s probably why no one here welcomes the end of the day, because it signals the end of a day full of laughter, seriousness, enthusiasm and relationship building.  Given a choice, we all would want to bundle and relive each day, for we know these 2 years will draw to a close soon. And soon we realize that another day awaits us, just as exciting as the days gone by.  BTW, I just realize that my roommate is cursing me for staying up so late...!