The quintessential mid life crisis

PART II Houston - we have a problem Now if you have not been to the IIM-K campus, you will mistake it to be a resort. It is located atop a hill with snaking roads leading you up to the campus or guest houses - depending upon your destination. The clouds add an element of mystic that is often seen in hill stations while also producing enough rains to keep the surroundings clean and nourish the innumerable trees that adorn the landscape. The design and architecture of the campus is so stunning that it makes you forget academics and immediately infuses a vacation like feeling. But I am not documenting a travelogue here, so I will stop romancing it all. Back to my lecture. I was led to the main entrance of the campus where two things caught my attention. One, there was an large and impressive statue of Arjun. Although the extremely well sculpted body of Arjun makes him seem more like Bheem - but that is not the point. Arjun stands for focus (among other virtues),...

PART - 1 The check-in   “The room should have been booked in the name of Professor Snehanshu Mitra” exclaimed my cab driver Syed Alavi, as he unsuccessfully tried to reason with the Guest house keeper. “Room number 7!” he reconfirmed my intended stay with the placement committee. After some frantic conversations in chaste Malayalam, I was allowed in. “Prof Snehanshu Mitra” I repeated to myself as I was led downstairs. The fake prefix had a nice ring to it and I thoroughly enjoyed it for the next few seconds till the housekeeper opened the door and I settled in. Maybe it is the same feeling that Digvijay Singh gets when people call him ‘intellectual’ I reasoned. Maybe every dog indeed has his day – the joke is completely on Diggy. Mind it! The next couple of hours were thoroughly unproductive for a variety of reasons. From waiting endlessly for breakfast (oh yes! IIM-K have outsourced their canteen to IRCTC – the same dreadful caterers who serve the railways’ ...