There was a lot of talk of how Term 3 is the most hectic term in the entire academic year. There was also lot of talk of how the work pressure sort of reduces once one gets into the elective terms. Me, being conditioned to always look for opportunities which lets me get away with not doing much work, had pictured a rosy future at the end of term 4.

Sadly, I was wrong. Very wrong, actually. This term is easily the toughest of all we have gone through till wrong. Agreed, the mad rush for CGPA & the dean’s list is not there. But for a person like me, whose best academic performance was coming 4th in Class 3, the above 2 indicators were never a factor anyways. I judge a term purely by its workload and in that Term 5 wins hands down. There is just too much to do. Period.

The entire term sort of peaked over this last weekend. Everybody in campus had, on an average, 4-5 assignment submission to be made on Monday/Tuesday. Everybody was running all over the campus, different subjects, different studygroups, always on the phone. Among all this, also cram in a soft skills workshop, a case study prep session with Deloitte, a talk from Google, CV review sessions and so on and on. Of course, there were the obligatory weekend booze sessions which further reduced available time – first, the time spent drinking (usually starting around 8-9 pm and going on till 2-3 at night) and second, the entire next morning spent sleeping or walking around like a zombie.

Well, one of the high points of the entire year (at least for me) took place last weekend. A bartending session was organized by Tulleho. So, we learnt to make 4 cocktails and the deal was that whatever one makes, one consumes. So we had about 40 very happy people at the end of 2 hours. Forgotten were assignments, deadlines, placements and other myriad worries. The mind was freshened, the body was charged. I only wish I had taken some pictures.

Coming back to the acads, one of the major pain points is that the old study groups no longer exist. For good or bad, some kind of synergy (apparently the 2nd most abused work in MBA land *) existed in the study groups. Over 4 terms, we know who were good in what and work responsibilities were divided accordingly. With electives all that’s gone. So now I have 4 different study groups & every member of my study groups (18 in my case) have 4 study groups themselves. The result is there is an astonishing amount of pull from all directions for everybody. It’s hard to fix up a meeting, there is constant juggling of the calendar and even when you meet ultimately, the phone just doesn’t stop ringing.

“Have you done this” / “have you done that” / “when are we going to meet” / “but you said you will meet at 10.30” / “it will take only 30 minutes, please come yaar” / “don’t give me crap about assignments, we all have assignments” / “Boss, can’t take this anymore, nobody is responding to meeting invites”…..different outcomes but the same common pain….just too many assignments!!

On a totally unrelated note, people tell me that Café has a new menu and it’s actually quite good.

p.s.
* in case anybody is wondering, the most abused word in a B-school is ‘intuitive’