Arriving at Great Lakes

So finally the D-Day arrived. The train was at 6:00 am and i got up at 3:30 to recheck i had kept everything. Right from the charger of my cell phone to my clothes. I was hyper excited as well as hyper scared, because Murphy's Law has a habit of striking at such moments. After calming my self down, I walked with my huge two luggages and off towards the railway station with my parents. I half expected the train, Shatabdi, to be somewhere on a god forsaken platform number and it was on 7. Carrying atleast 40 kilos i finally tugged all my luggage in, met a few of a coincidental friends travelling to Chennai for other purposes and before I knew it the journey began.

I guess I slept through most part of it and the parts that I did not, I was on the phone with my friends. The train was supposed to reach at around 11.00 and it reached at 11.00 by the minute. Got ripped off at the railway station by the cab driver who threatened me(Me of all people!) and finally after some real reckless driving I made it to Green Meadows. And the board said 'Welcome to Spartans'. The feeling of getting back to college had not sunk in by then and to me it felt as if I am on a all paid vacation. Since my reporting time was 2-3 i started asking around for the process and meeting a whole new bunch of people.

The group who were supposed to report at around 11 am finished tagging their luggage and were off towards great lakes before I met a couple of other guys. Met an ex office friend, and then met some more new friends and before i knew it, we were around thirty strangers talking about ISB versus Great Lakes , what food we can expect, the humidity in chennai. The tagging of the luggage was simple though I could not fathom the process of removing the sticker. After serving onion pakodas and kappi and tea, we were off to great lakes packed in a bus.

Sitting in the first row, i could clearly see the reason why the ECR was designed to cut down population. To overtake is a do or die mission. I guess our bus nearly tried to knock over many people but luckily it never quite managed to do that. After forty minutes we saw a barrier bearing the Great Lakes logo, though not yet a part of the college, felt somewhat happy to see it. And then after an hour we were there. The board and entrance of Great Lakes Institute of Management welcomed us into its fold. And like true believers we walked our first baby steps into the campus.

A New Life.. A new rising sun.. and a broader horizon

Probably this is going to be what I always wanted to do in my life. Learn the management theorems from the Gurus themselves. And maybe thats why fate conspired me to think of Great Lakes as a choice.

Once I started following the college through pagalguy and talked to a few seniors, i knew his was the place I wanted to be in. I attended a session called 'Meet the Dean' and wow. I was bedazzled to say the least. As soon as the college opened its admission process, I applied for it. The process was very simple. Write your details and fill in about five essays, ask your recommender(two of them) to write something good about you and finally write your job profile. All this while making sure that you are genuine and also making sure people understand that MBA is your logical next step. Easy right? Not so easy mate, as this turned to be the place where my brain worked overtime and some people even said that they could see steam coming out (of my ears).

Submitting the application I could sense my heartbeat go like the autorickshaw meter's fare in Bangalore. It was a moment which i can replay even right now in front of my eyes. My recommender(s) also finished their part and all I could do was hope and wait. Even then I checked the site, PG every single day.

Results, like the one's they announce on T.V shows ' coming up in a minute after the break', were delayed by some days. Excruciating wait was followed by exuberance. I was short listed for the GD-PI call. The fact that this was my only call and my only shot at MBA was not even on my mind till my GD-PI day. I clearly remember the day at a hotel in Bangalore. Dressed in black formals , I managed to misplace my sunglasses. But the whole session was good and the interview panel and seniors made me feel very comfortable. The GD was on an easy topic which made it tougher to get good points but remembering the day I think i just voiced my opinions for around 3 minutes and i made around 3-4 new points. I guess those points were good.

The interview panel, who was supposed to take my interview, were delayed in traffic. (Cant blame anyone, its Bangalore!) Interview lasted around 15 minutes and the made sure they understood why I wanted to choose Great Lakes and why an MBA.

Well, after the interview day, the final results took like an eternity to come out. This time around excruciating pain was followed by a sigh of relief. I had made it. Calls and messages from everyone and yet I felt alone in my celebrations, until two people set up a Facebook group. That was the birth of Spartans.

Today after getting relieved from my company, getting my suitcases packed, checking and rechecking my document, I stand on the threshold of a new bend in the river of my life. I am a Spartan. And I am proud of it.