The zombie is back and has managed to climb up to the 2nd semester. Yes guys, I managed to survive first semester usually referred to as the "toughest 3 months of life" by the IIM-fraternity. You all must be wondering what kind of horrid stories and description do I have now to reveal regarding the life in IIM-A. Guys, this time it won't be that much about the miserable life, assuming that to be there throughout. This time I will be covering the better things of life, the people over here, i.e., GOD level students and professors and other aspects of life.

To start with, yesterday was one of most memorable days in IIM-A for me & loads of other people. One of our quite renowned alumni came to meet us informally. He has a fan following barring country boundaries and it's related to the passion of India.

Yes readers' you guessed it right, it is "Harsha Bhogle". Few of you may be surprised to know that he is an IIM-A alumni, but that's the reality. Adding to that, IIM-A is even more important to him since he found his wife "Anita" here during college life. Talking to him made us realize that it is really worth going through this life of misery, pain and daily fight for survival. He said that and I quote him "Having survived this place, I was confident of facing anything in life". This place makes you a fighter if you are not. Even our professors tell us the same. For ex Eco God, Prof. Ravinder Dholakia, well known in his field besides being consultant to the state govt. on various issues, said, "Just surviving this place means you succeeded".

In this place you see the best of talent India has to offer and a guy, who would've never dreamed to be among such a awesome talent, is really bedazzled. At a place like this, you learn to accept your limitations and like yourself for what you are. To give a few examples - One of our professor is MIT alumni and he gave his thesis in 17 pages which otherwise people take 100-200 pages. Other professor is a gold medalist CA & was formerly Finance Manager for "Rolls Royce" global operations to name a few.

Among students, there are people who had option of going to MIT, Stanford and there is one whose girl friend is studying in MIT. Final year students have started getting PPOs (pre-placement offers) from MNCs for foreign placements.

Sometimes it feels good when we see that students from other colleges come here to have a tour of our campus and library. To add to that, the recent surveys of B-schools has really said it all and especially by Economic Survey which has placed IIM-A as rank 45 across world, highest rank by any Asian institute.

But besides that we see students who are so humble and co-operating. A lot of people have a misconception of IIM grads being snobbish kind; I would like to say they are not. You just have to meet them to believe me.

That would be all for now, hoping this inside view would've been of some use and interest to you, now I should take all this optimism away and get back to reality. The point of views differ depending on whether you are outside or inside the border.

Enjoy to maximum & keep fighting (not literally) in life. This is a lesson you can learn without going through the grilling for it.

* Contributed by -
Anuj Arora,
B.Tech. Eletronics & Communications,
Kurukshetra University,
Now at IIM-Ahmedabad.