I do not know what was the one thing that impressed me most about IIMC before I joined it. It could have been the lake and trees environment or it could have been the round the clock tennis. It was certainly not its reputation for producing managers who can do a quantitative analysis of the Bengali psyche. And after spending a year and a half in this livewire campus, I still cannot decide what I will treasure most.

If a MBA is all you want to do, any management institute anywhere will suffice. But one does not spend the best years of one's life working hard to join an institute that will impose a burden of more courses that will bring back the painful memories of school and college. To the best of my knowledge, IIMC does offer some courses (a particularly conscientious friend of mine has confirmed that there are enough courses to keep one profitably employed for many years) in various disciplines. That brings me to something very important to all IIMCians and something they are very touchy about - Discipline.

The one thing that I have learnt with great difficulty here is that discipline is something that comes from within and cannot be imposed through rules that curb freedom to think and act. IIMC embodies a healthy mix of fierce independence and tolerance. Infact, it actually teaches that. Another thing that can leave an outsider spellbound is the autonomy students exercise in running and improving the impressive IT infrastructure, among other things. That should not lead one to suspect that everyone here is master of his or her destiny and can get up without assistance in the morning, if he does get up after spending the whole night playing games('IIMC's Sepak Takraw' or Footer Volley, as it is called here, is very popular), dancing to the latest pirated songs, or reading all night class notes on Stochastic Processes. But no one is surprised when these revelers and players end up scoring the highest marks in the exams.

Friends who go to the Lecture halls never fail to express the strong feelings they have about members of the teaching faculty. The best thing about them is that most have adapted to the needs of the programme. Completing a course on something most students have not studied at all in their lives in 10 weeks and doing it with passion and effectiveness is something that wins the respect of students and IIMC has arguably the most respectable group of professors in every area. The consultancy work done by them is as inspiring as their teaching style. Our lecture halls are not as detested as elsewhere because they are also the venue for some of the most interesting interactions with exceptional people from the fields of education, business, art and sport.

Next

Contributed by -
Bikramjeet Sra,
II Year,
IIM Calcutta.