As the protagonist walks down the winding pathways that lead up to the Management Development Centre, he feels a sense of calm. Having spent the last five years negotiating traffic, that at times is intent on killing you, yet at others pins you down and lets you marinate your lungs in hydrocarbons and other noxious gases, scrambling to “clock in” and making your grand presence felt at your presumptuously important yet claustrophobic office cubicle (In moments of clarity you can hear the cacophony of keyboard clicks generated by souls such as you, busy, typing away their lives) and starting the long commute back home with the herd of humans who you barely know yet exchange presently artificial smiles with at buses and metros, he felt unnerved by the calm.
He sees boards that inform him of the birds found on the campus of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He pauses to listen to the symphony of chirps they make as if begging the world to acknowledge their presence. There is melody to their calls, much different from harsh caws of his grand old friend, the crow, that woke him up every morning for the last five years even before his alarm would go off. He looks around to see winding vines hug the trunks of trees, old and wise, like the souls that have imbibed and imbued knowledge from this institute. It is his turn now.
As he steps into the building to explore, he is confused by the corridors that lead to pockets of garden and not to the brick and mortar rooms he is used to. He does not realize if he is inside the building or outside it. It seems, it is by design, meant to make you ponder. The preconceived notions of what he calls a building are shattered in moments. He is used to seeing walls define a corridor. There are none here. He is left amazed, trying to figure out if the flora has grown around the building or is it the other way around.
A week of classes have gone by, yet our protagonist still gets lost in the corridors looking for the administrative offices. In these lost moments he finds his mind flexing its muscles, as if waking up from a long slumber. His mind shall explore new concepts and teachings in the year to come, debating ideas and lessons with friends while resting on the benches that seem to have grown like mushrooms out of the ground, the boundaries between concrete and grass rendered blurry. There shall be many a moment of trepidation when his mind shall make him nervous while he tries to make sense of the dense case studies, comprehend the concepts taught and handle the anxieties of placements. Yet seventy-six of such protagonists shall walk the corridors of IIM Bangalore for a year with intrepid hearts.
P.S.- If you imagine our protagonist to be a lady, I request you to put an ‘s’ in front of the ‘he’.
Anindya Chakraborty is a current student of the EPGP 2019-20 batch at IIM Bangalore. After graduating as an Electrical Engineer from Jalpaiguri Govt. Engineering College, he worked at Damodar Valley Corporation, where he has handled operation and maintenance of Thermal power plants. He has also been involved in Project Management roles for rooftop solar projects, pumped storage plants and emission control systems. When he gets tired with the city traffic, he puts on a trekking enthusiast’s cap and loves to lose himself in the Himalayas while trying to capture their beauty through his rudimentary photography skills.