A MICAn Day
Image: An offbeat class in progress at MICA – Participatory Theater Workshop
Read some of the previous posts here:
Barsaat ki Ek Raat – The Committee Conundrum
Once Upon A Time, There Was A Pre-read
The Poetic Encounter
8.30 AM
First alarm goes off. I am sleeping blissfully, unaware of worldly problems like the shrill beep of an alarm. My roommate wakes up reluctantly (and possibly cursing me under her breath and I can’t blame her for that) and murmurs to shut it off. I slam the alarm on 5 minutes snooze and we both doze off back to our deep slumber. This ritual repeats for a while, for about 20 minutes.
8.50 AM
“Fuck!” screams my roommate and tries to wake me up with a vengeance.
We both consider for a while to take shower or not. Don’t get me wrong. The question is not about wanting; it’s about finding an available & functional shower-room. Well, we’ve common bathrooms at MICA and it would be a rare occasion to have all of them functioning well. I guess, it happened only during the initial days of season.
Anyways, we would take either a super-quick shower or super-quick cleaning routine, depending upon the best option available, change in clean clothes, put-on the slippers, spray on some fragrance and lip gloss and get going. All this takes place in 15 minutes flat. What? You thought MBA life would be drastically different (read better) from your Engineering days? You couldn’t be any more wrong. Sorry to burst that bubble for you.
9.05 AM
A long queue at the breakfast counter in mess. Sigh! You see, most of us were following more or less the similar morning routine, super-fast, super-quick and fool-proof. With some sort of magic, we always manage to grab breakfast, tea and the fruits. Stuff it in and it feels like an achievement not to miss the breakfast yet again. Yes, almost every morning. So what? It still feels that way.
9.15 AM
It’s the time for first lecture of the day. We need to punch in our bio-metric attendance latest by 9.20 AM. Ah, great we still have 5 minutes to reach. That’s a good start. It would take a maximum 3 of minutes to reach for class even if I walk at normal pace and 1 minute if I decide to half-run, half-brisk-walk to the class. Oops! But there is also the queue to punch-in the attendance. See I told you, how much in sync we were, when it comes to our morning routine.
9.20 AM
Phew! Managed to swipe my coveted index finger for the much-needed attendance. And also managed to grab a seat in last row, where I can’t be easily caught dozing off or working on some assignment or stuff like that (anything that is totally unrelated to the class in question), just in case the class is proving to be unappealing to me. Nah, I’m kidding. Honestly, because I was up the whole night and didn’t get my quota of beauty sleep (who am I kidding really?). You see, there is always something that keeps us, the MICAns, up the whole night. It could be anything ranging from baddy-marathon to movie-marathon to a heated discussion over an assignment or competition entry. We always have our hands full of options. MBA is such a tough job, you know.
2.30 PM – 5.30 PM
Afternoon siesta, without fail. Of course, on many days we’ve classes in the afternoon. But then how does it matter? The siesta takes place nevertheless. In fact, afternoon sessions have such mystical powers to cast a spell on us and send us straight to the dream land. Nothing can beat the freshness one feels after the rejuvenating sleeping session in those AC classrooms with lights off on many occasions to be able to see the video or the PPT clearly. If anyone is suffering from insomnia, these after lunch sessions bring hope for you.
5.30 PM
This is the evening refreshment time. Yeeey! I look forward to the delicious snacks and having the piping hot tea at mess. And if there is pani-puri, the day is made. After that, the sports arena becomes alive, the gym is also abuzz with activity and some enthusiasts who have just embarked on the journey to fitness (n-th time, count me in). You see, first we gulp down loads of calories and fat laden, yet irresistible snacks and then we need to burn it all off. Even the most sedentary of the people would be seen taking strolls around campus. If you’re lucky, you might even catch some coochie-coo taking place somewhere. It’s so refreshing to see so much love around you.
9.30 PM
It’s dinner time. Dinner comes in wide range of options, from absolutely awesome to totally yucky, from Dal-Bati-Churma to Hungarian delicacies. But if there is a dessert being served, it really doesn’t matter. Gulp down 2-3 bowls of custard (yummy!) and you’re set until the post-midnight hunger pangs. And then Chhota is there to take care of that. So no worries.
11 PM
I should probably start thinking about doing that impending assignment which we had a discussion about, last night. Some of the group members didn’t like the dinner and have gone out. There is no point in working without everyone being present so we’ll sit tomorrow after lunch (really?) and finish it in one go. Yeah, like that’s ever gonna happen! But then what can we do if the entire team is not here. After about 1 hour of deep intellectual discussion (read ranting) about people being irresponsible and free-loaders and blah blah, the rest of us call it a day.
12 AM-Wee hours of night
I can’t sleep that early even if I want to. That would be sort of crime at MICA. So I do a couple of things over a couple of trips to Chhota and finally settle down to watch a movie or a TV series which is worth my time. Deciding upon what to watch takes me almost as much time as the movie runs. It has to be worth my time after all. I can’t just watch any movie. Hey, I’m an enlightened MICAn. My intellectual hunger gets satisfied only with the extremely depressing “realistic” movie revealing some horrendous propaganda that took place some 30-40-50 years ago. Finally, I settle with the latest Hollywood/Bollywood flick recently uploaded on Myzone. See, I told you MBA is a tough job. And, there are tough decisions to be made all the time.
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of this routine to any MBA student out there is purely coincidental 😛
