Its been more than a semester in SIBM(Symbiosis Institute Of Business Management for the uninitiated and IIM alumni),purportedly the 5th best B-school in the whole of India or so a couple of publications would have me believe. It could be 5th or 15th or 500th for all I may care , as long as the corporates believe it and offer us jobs,who the hell am I to question their better judgement?*wide grin*.
Somehow,for some unfathomable reason,the most vivid memory of my short tenure in SIBM has been that of the peons distributing sweets to unsuspecting students on the momentous occasion of their four storey high campus being accorded the 5th rank in India.
Not my first lecture here or the fresher's party with so many miniskirts ,or the i-pat interview , not even the taste of those sweets ( thank God for small mercies).All I remember is the 5th rank and the sweets.Its funny how some of the most inane stuf lodges itself firmly in a rather sticky portion of your memory and all the important stuff like miniskirts is but a fleeting recollection,well actually there was this one miniskirt but...... lets finish this ranking business first.
Why were we ranked 5th of all the places? Afterall there are so many numbers in the number system,anybody going to tambola games at your mom's kittie parties would know that(this is beginning to sound like a damned confession now).I mean why not 1,2 or 3 or even the supposedly lucky number 7?Why 5?Is it because 5 lies neither here nor there but somewhere in between.The more I think about it the more I am convinced that the fault lies with the numbering system more than anything else.
Afterall,with its four full storeys of architecture grandeur and an equal number of permanent faculty.The boundless library bang in the middle of a dirtbike racing track and a computer lab that on last count had more functional chairs than computers, SIBM definitely deserves to be ranked much higher than a tawrdy 5th.So starting next year which is about 12 hours and a few minutes away , we shall have rankings in fractions as well and don't be surprised if your beloved SIBM notches up an enviable rank of 4.9 or even a stupendous 4.89 if they introduce a case study or two in the marketing course curriculum.
Amidst this milieu of bustling optimism there ar one or two things that really bother me.Most striking among these is the suspicious activities of certain shady individuals who inhabit this really dark corner room some of us refer to by the moniker kamra number 13.At the best of times , they can be seen walking really fast across the campus or walking behind some grey or blue suit.These individuals,whom I suspect belong to some underground society seem to thrive in dark rooms performing caballistic rituals to which they give curious names like CRPs and Summers.
I also suspect that in some strange occult sort of a way this very bunch of elusive individuals is behind that integer ranking of 5 and why so many impressive blue and grey suits come to SIBM and run hefty Pizza hut bills at our expense.
It is while looking longingly at another one of those pizza deliveries dissappearing inside tha dark room that the truth finally dawns on me.I suddenly realise how Buddha must've really felt under that tree os his.SIBM might not be a lot of things but it definitely is an institute with a lot of heart and character.Whatever we might lack in resources,we more thn make up for it in effort,look at the inhabitants of Room no.13 if u don't believe me or even the rest of the council for that matter.
So,with my belief finally restored in SIBM and its idiosyncracies , I proudly proclaim that"LESS IS MORE" and a miniskirt is a fine case in point,wottsay people?
