Dear Readers and my dearest Blog,

In my last post I covered the most important out-of-campus feature of IBA, the AOL 3 – day camp. One of my friends very accurately said that, “Every year, many singles go inside the AOL campus, some more couples come back to IBA roll”. This year also, many followed the suit to maintain the legacy.

Now, I have got some more responsibility to shoulder as I finish my first year in this institute. I am a senior now. So I decided to share some more insight deeper and closer to academic yet far from it.

Giving the last 9 months a deep thought, I understood today exactly what my life here has taught me. Those of you who have gone through my earlier posts must have by now got a mental picture regarding IBA and match it with the real physical image and you can get the complete picture.

Life @ IBA is, as foretold by those who passed the gates before me, a miniature Corporate Jungle. There are moments of triumphs and also of flat-face defeats. Overall, what I learnt here is that life really needs to be lived diplomatically for survival.

Sometimes, one has to reassess one’s list of friends and foes. Everyday, here I have seen new alliances being made and some unexpected ones among them. Also, I have seen some really weird M&As (Mergers & Acquisitions). In the end, it is all dirty politics and you really cannot stay on the edge of this mud pool and live. It is worse than dying. Always remember hence, that those who are very close can end up being the worst enemy. Always beware of the great mankind policy of “Enemy of my Enemy is my Friend”. As I have seen many fall due to this foolish ideology.

Another serious point which needs to be put up for all those who end up being in this institute is that “IBA is like a place full of mirrors”. If you see good around, you will feel good and have a good year. If you spot darkness, you will live in darkness and misery. I have lost count of the number of times I have heard people crib about the reason they are here and the misery they have to go through just because they are in IBA. Even you will hear thousands of them in future. It is easy to crib and make a hue & cry about the wretchedness of the life here, but, think “Won’t it be better if you can make a difference here? Can you make it a better place?”

Some of us have tried and also some succeeded in doing so. The best example is the Mess Committee. All had issues with the food served in the mess. These guys & gals took the situation in hand and the results are in front of all. They have made the close-by mini-fast-food places lose their business. Another example is the way PGPRM had a talk with CEO and arranged for the books related to Retail Management in Library. There is always a way to do things. One just needs to look at it.

So my message to all those newbies at IBA is that “Be Proud of where you are and if you are not, then, make the place proud of having u there”.

Next Post: The Beginning of the Stage 2 of LIFE @ IBA. And the clubs and committees too… for sure.

AOL >>> The "out-of-IBA" experience

IBA is a green campus situated at the outskirts of Bangalore. Due to this, it happened to be a place close to the great AOL Ashram of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Since the day I have came to IBA campus, I have seen many students (generally in couples! :P) going to AOL for just a timepass trip. It is a general trend in IBA to visit AOL nearly every few days, a trend which I cannot really understand as the place is same, has a similar yet bigger collection of grass & trees to IBA. Now, let’s start the story about the AOL 3-day course.

It was the night of 18th December 2007. The air was cool (and cold for most people) and flowing steadily. Good number of IBAians 07-09 batch students was in IT Lab, doing Assignments for record and simultaneous chatting, orkutting and the new business in IBA, FACEBOOKING. Some couples were strolling around in campus while some were idling on Omega circle. All of them discussing the workload (all sorts) for the rest of the week. Then, from a room on the first floor of Admin Block, someone called the CEO, IBA shot a mail across the network via Outlook titled “AOL Program” from 19th Dec” and the scene changed dramatically. The news about the long delayed AOL program spread like fire. Most of the students, who were lost in the deep misery of submissions, were revived by the news.

The next evening, all the first-years were standing near the Admin Block looking out for their friends and thinking about what is going to come up next. And within next hour and half, all are at the reception counter of AOL. The place of sanctity & peace becomes a Fish Market. The reason was that the people were to stay in groups of 4 and all wanted to stay with their so-called best buddies. Gangs of IBA sent their best man to stand and get the rooms and all other members were patrolling his/her position in the Queue. Among these Sunsilk Gangs and Bands of Boys were some minions who belonged to no specific groups hence, were trying to get inside some other groups. But, watching all this was pure fun. The best part was when the officials declared that there are only few rooms with a 4-people system and other rooms left were of 3 member system which led to rise of newer gangs. Also, just beside this line, those who had got registered were being photographed for records, where people were giving oddest of all expressions time-to-time.

After registering and entering the rooms, we were greeted by few more elements of surprise. The rooms were a beauty and had all the amenities. And believe me, once you start to live in a hostel, you find such places like palaces. But, there was also a bad element of surprise which was that we were supposed to get up at 5:30 next morning to attend the first session at 6:30 am and a delay will cause a hole in the wallet of size Rs. 100! But, at last we were inside AOL.

Morning, the session was really a eye-closure yet, we gave respect to the elder person who had come for teaching us the basic YOGA methods. Later that day, we first time came in direct contact with a typical AOL instructor Mr. Bawa. He was a neo-guru with a great running business and long hair tied in ponytail. He instructed us for long hours about life and methods to tackle problems…. It was really a learning session for those who had lived their lives without giving it a second’s thought.

Similar sessions were conducted over next two days too. Following were the salient features of the course:

1. The place was a perfect change of lane from the fast and stressful pace of MBA life.
2. We had nice sleep for 3 days
3. Couples got greater scope for being with each other in & out of sessions.
4. We learnt an important lesson that “If something is supposed to happen, then, it will surely do anyhow”… I got a concrete proof of this in few days only.
5. Remember that enjoy every moment you spend in AOL as they make together an unforgettable experience…. So SO-HUM!!! (take a deep breath in……………….. and breath out!)

Next: Clubs & Committees in IBA and their special place in Life @ IBA