It's all in the day

If after graduating from b-school, there is one learning that I would want to be constantly reminded of, is the preciousness and perishability of time.

Describing a day in a b-school is probably the most easiest of all as you just have to pick almost any day and the situation remains just the same. One of the taxing days in recent times was the last Friday and I choose to describe it in today's blog.

0.00 am: In the Tennis court with Kedar, a close friend from Bombay. The set position is tied at 2-2 and both of us were enjoying the game under flood lights. In another 30 mins, I had won the set 6-4 and we decided to stop and get back to "routine".

1.00 am: Refreshed by the game, I decided to read (called pre-reading) for the next day's Operations Management session and read for an hour.

2.00 am: The day's evening class is Prof. T.P. Ghosh's Corporate Finance and that is one of the subjects that I love here. The teacher is a visiting professor, a very experienced practical genius, who is also the Chairman of Indian Chartered Accounts Institute. I prepared for his class for another 90 minutes before I decided to sleep early to be fresh for the 8:30 lecture.

3:30 am-8:00 am: Managed to find sleep amidst huge uproar and laughter outside the room, thanks to a few girls who were supposedly "studying".

8:00-8:30 am: Cramped up brushing, shaving, bathing and also breakfast and running to the class to reach on time.

8:30-10:00 am: "Research Methods of Business" class was taken by two professors. Nothing much to comment here.

10:00-12:00 am: Operations Management, one of my favourites this term.

12:00 noon: Time for some bad news. Just the moment I thought there is a huge opportunity to sleep for 2 hours, I found the notice that we need to be in the classes again at 2:00pm for an Economics Quiz.

12:30-2:00pm: The time to sleep had to be given to preparing for the quiz and I did just that, missing my lunch in the process (which by the way rarely happens). We also had to report at the auditorium at 2:30 pm for a guest lecture by a General Manager from Ranbaxy.

2:00pm-2:15pm: The Quiz went well thanks to my "Just in Time" preparation and dressed in a new navy suit, I dashed to the auditorium to save the fine of Rs 200 in case you are a minute late for a guest lecture.

2:15pm: The session was initially planned for a duration of 2 hours, but the session almost went till 5:45 pm before a professor handed in a chit to the General Manager, requesting him to end the class as students had a regular lecture (of TP Ghosh) at 6:00 pm in the academic block.

5:55pm: Jha-Ji, the snack store, adjacent to the classes has many a time been my life-saver. I had two paneer patties, as a consolation for the missed lunch and a coffee to keep me awake for my favourite class. And as always, the coffee served its purpose and one and a half hours later, I happily came out, happy for having learnt something substantial in the class.

7:30pm: The choice would have been to sleep, but the adrenaline is all pumped up as the week-end approaches and this week-end was no different. I played few online computer games and then listened to a huge list of tamil songs, all the while typing few mails.

9:00pm: Working after good food is a pain best avoided and hence socialised around for another hour, before playing another game in a friend's comp in a failed attempt to break the best record.

10:00pm: The mood to study is still not there and in such a moment, the offer to play tennis is the most welcome thing on earth and soon I was out there in the court.

11:30pm: The day was a rotten one, but the classes next day morning would still be held and I needed to prepare for an hour, which I reluctantly did.

00:45am: I would have slept for sure had not somebody reminded me that a case study(analysis of a story of a business situation with facts) has been planned by the Strategy Prof. Amit Kapoor. I started reading the Harvard Business Review case and finised the forty odd pages in around two hours and was then was off to sleep at 3:00am.

Saturday afternoon and Sunday that followed was extremely relaxing this time with a lot less work to do and I made the best use of the time by either chatting or sleeping. I also watched "Behind Enemy Lines" and had dinner outside with friends.

Today: It's almost 3am now and I better sleep or I would have to put a fight to stay awake in tomorrow's class. And before I end, my first blog at last is up and I am excited about it. Now time to hit the bed.