Page - 1

June 20, 2006

Here I am, finally! At the Mecca of Management, at the best B-school in the country, the place where lakhs strive to get in every year and very few finally make it... the hallowed portals of IIM Ahmedabad.

The time had finally come when I had to move out of the house into a hostel. I had always wanted to experience the hostel life and have finally got the chance, and what a place to get it at! Let me first give a brief description of how the institute is organized.

The entire residential area at IIM-A is divided into dormitories. There are 27 dorms in all and each dorm contains about 30 students. Three dorms are reserved for girls and the remaining are guys' dens. A new campus has been under construction for quite sometime now and contains 9 dorms, some class rooms, seminar rooms and few other things which are yet to be completed.

The old and the new campus are located on two sides of the main road and are connected from inside the campus via an underground tunnel. The tunnel itself is a sight in itself and contains huge pictures of life, culture and history of IIM-A. The old campus is all open brick construction and the new one is all open concrete. I am no civil engineer, and hence, can't go into the details, but the crux is that there aren't any plasters / distempers on any of the buildings and such a construction is very unique and extremely difficult to maintain. This construction is one of the rich heritage of IIM-A.

OK, now I reached the campus in the afternoon, and from that very instant, all I encountered at the institute was sheer professionalism. At the beginning itself, I never expected the security guard to be so cordial. He smilingly guided me to the SAC (Student Activities Committee) office in Dorm 4. After few formalities, I was given the room keys and the Programmes Officer himself addressed me personally and ensured that I do not face any problems. I was given a bag there itself that contained a telephone instrument and few other essentials that I would require in the room. Then a person accompanied me to the room and carried the luggage as well.

Next

* Contributed by -
Vinamra Srivastava (Campus Associate),
PGP - 1,
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.