Touchdown

A water tank, that was my first sight of the IIM Indore campus. On that bright shiny day the gates of the campus looked as grand as that of a palace. The winding road took me, my parents and my three bags past the academic block and to the hostel block. I got a room untouched by anyone, that obviously excludes the workers who built it. E-207 was a neat room, sufficient for me and had a marvelous green door. I was among the lucky few who got rooms at the newly built E-block. My father and mother did most of the unpacking and arranged my stuff neatly. They insisted on doing that, as I was bad at that. Me and mother went to the mess to do so some food survey. Caterers at IIM Indore are very smart people, after all they were at IIM too. They knew when parents flock the campus, so the food tasted like ...like ....food. My mother is a very observant lady. More than that Dr.Rashmi Paul is a bit too frank for my comfort. While having our lunch in the mess, she noticed that the girl across the table, Neha Saxena, looked extremely similar to Divya. Divya is my best friend, I know her since school. So my mom blabs out her great discovery so loud that even Neha's dad could hear. I could just pop my eyes out enough to make my mother look away!

The next morning began with the drill session at 5.30 AM followed by the Self Awareness & Discovery sessions (S.A.D.) While introducing himself one person failed to get up because he had pulled a muscle. Later in the morning, I met the same person in front of the bathroom. I asked him about his leg, he replied that the &(&@# leg feels very &@*)($@ painful. He was going to take a bath, so I thought it would be wise to tell him that the water is boiling hot in all the taps. He said "toh accha hai na...main usme pair dalega...toh garam paani mein woh mast thik hoyega!" This chap from Mumbai was Kunal G Sukthankar. Then I met him again during the registration, there we chatted and got friendly. He was my first friend at the campus. Through him I got to know Pranav. He was an over sized hippie, and he needed a high five ever 10 minutes. Maybe that is a ritual in his native land. Some people are not introduced, they just happen. Shreyas is not a person, he is a phenomenon, a marathi phenomenon. This huge man had one thing common with me - whackiness. People at IIM Indore were going to have a migrane with both of us around and working in collusion. Neeraj Sansanwal was also a occupant of a room in the corridor same as mine, next to Kunal's. This Harayani lad had a very disciplined and simple life. I liked that sincere attitude. Then in a couple of days, Anirudh Muchhal arrived in E-Block. We caught hold of this local and tried to give him fundas about living in the hostels and about the enlightening morning sessions. He became to be known as Muchhad, he became our local guide. Soon I came to know the three girls ; Roshin, Kavita and Akanksha. Roshin was as lazy as a rock and was from Delhi. Kavita had a sweet gujrati voice, one which would cause diabetes to the listener. Akanksha preffered to be the silent one. I came to know Neil through some one I do not remember, but he was a simple person. He looks like Mr. Bean. And he sometimes looks like he is a US returned gujrati. He has a collection of shiny shirts that he wears on Sundays to dazzle the city. We all created something that we needed so much here. A family. Don't let your imagination go wild, think clean. We soon started sharing our initmate feelings and how we missed home and the special ones.

A talent night was organized on our second weekend at IIM. It was to be a inter section competition. Anirudh Mairal sang his heart out and we rocked along. Then came the biggest flop of all time - a skit involving me in a double role. I had to enact two professors who were charcters in a badly written skit about some time machine. Fortunately I did hear some people laughing while I was on the stage. I could only save some face. But then something happened. As Nikhil Malhotra of PGP-2 said "Hooda happened!". Until that day Santana was my favourite guitarist. Full stop. I was shouting my lungs out to cheer up the section A band. Other people thought I was mad, psychopath. They were damn right! I enjoyed that evening a lot. I was starting to love this place called Planet I. My flight had finally touched down. Welcome to IIM Indore, Ayush Paul. Have a nice stay!