Back to IIM-K - Part I

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’ version of mid-day meals to unsuspecting PGP students) to taking hopelessly amateurish pictures with my DSLR, to unsuccessfully take a ‘quick nap’. Time was fast running by, and I thought of finishing off my slides. And time permitting – a quick rehearsal!

The presentation

I had been working on organizing my thoughts for about a month now. I had spoken to quite a few people taking their views on the subject - "Emerging trends in Analytics".

But did I tell you that I can be a master procrastinator? I am gifted with this extraordinary ability to not just systematically delay things to their 11^th hour but at times even beyond their utility date. This strangely does not apply to the stuff that I do at office. Someday I will do complete justice to my natural ability.

So while my mind was assuring me that the outline for all sections was ready, it was strangely not raising alarms on the lack of content. That was until somebody from the placement committee called up and suggested that I would be picked up for the lecture @ 2 pm. “That should be OK” I said.

“That should be OK?” my foot! It was 12:40 pm and I had two more sections to complete after which there should be at least one decent attempt to rehearse. It did not help that I had not taken a bath and the cab would come 10 minutes in advance. Of course the geyser was not switched on.

Then a magic idea stuck me. Maybe all the sections did not need to be populated completely – I can speak out of my experience. While there won’t be much of written content for the audience, if they listened well, they would get my point.  The electricity produced in my brain at that moment could have illuminated the entire Chinnaswamy stadium.

With this temporary moment of intellectual brilliance, I shut down the laptop convinced that I did not need to labour any more. I looked into the mirror. "Oh you genius! God’s gift to mankind! Where were you all these years?" In due course of time, I would switch on the geyser, struggle to find the hot water knob, bathe in cold water - in frustration, get ready and get into the cab in a pensive mood. "Professor" Snehanshu Mitra – this does put a little extra pressure as well. Maybe I am better off without it.