Am I really a misfit?

I don't know if I am right but it sure feels like I am a misfit here. I do not know if it is a common feeling that has come into many of my other batch mates also, but as far as I am concerned, the 'resort' is fast becoming too much for me. IIMK has turned out to be a place where people seem to be trying hard to prove a point to themselves and to the others as well. They seem to be saying at the top of their voices that they are the best and that is why they are here and as such, they do not need any one else or any thing else for continuing their success story.

Things took a turn for the better, however, as we had our first informal meet with the seniors of our hostel (G) on Friday night. This was something that should have happened much earlier but for some reason or the other, seniors were busy giving us thinking material before they let their hair down. And let the hair down they did, as we all had a great time just sitting around, chatting and feasting on some snacks and cold drinks (I saw a Vodka bottle just before the party but some how, as the number of juniors started increasing, that bottle went out of the window somewhere). All of us juniors had to give their introduction which was intercepted by some funny (and sometimes, droll) bantering by the seniors (even the juniors joined in a little later).

The theme of the party turned out to be something that I have been hearing more and more about ever since I landed at Calicut. This city is supposed to have a gay culture and all male students are repeatedly being advised by the seniors not to venture out on the beaches alone in the nights. This fact (or alleged fact, if you want to call it that) was at the top of the jokes and the humour that was going around the hostel meet.

Saturday evening was spent at the Kappad beach and that was when I had just had some bad news from home. The news is too private, even for this blog and therefore, I will skip that part. The only thing that I can mention is that I was not at all in a good mood when Ravi and Abhijit dragged me half-asleep to the beach. Added to the thoughts that kept going home every now and then, I had to face the camaraderie that already exists between the people who came here earlier on the 2nd of this month for their preparatory course.

I don't have anything against them or their camaraderie but it is really difficult to break the ice if you are not really an extrovert and if you are an outsider in a group that is already in some stage of formation. All this combined in to some thing which always comes up on me whenever I am in this kind of a situation. I made myself unavailable. I know that by being aloof for the whole time, I have already isolated myself from the group of about fifteen people that went to the beach and may even have angered some. The worst thing is that I know that I am not even going to spare the effort to make things right. I know I can do it if I try but somehow, after the experience of the training years at Infosys, that effort is not really forthcoming.

Another thing that happened in the past two days was the Budget analysis on Friday night (just before the hostel party). It was done by a chartered accountant (I am not able to recollect his name) from Chennai who writes regularly for The Hindu and Business Line. I went there, expecting a brief yet exhaustive analysis of the chief features of the budget. I had read up a little about the budget on the net and knew about the basic features but wanted some clarifications on many of them. I was not expecting the speaker to drive home the point in a way that I would really be able to understand clearly but all the same, I expected some idea to dawn on me. I, and I am sure that many others, too, were pleasantly surprised.

The presenter used a unique style to present the budget to the lay person. Speaking at the Indian Institute of Management, he was still very precise in his use of words that could be understood even by the lay person who does not have any knowledge of finance or commerce. The only problem was that he had little knowledge about any thing else other than the part of the budget dealing with Direct Taxes, or at least that is what he claimed. He dealt with the amendments to the Direct Taxes that were made in this budget and the way he did it, full of anecdotes and an excellent sense of humour, was extremely interesting and a refreshing start to the proceedings at IIMK.

The good things at IIMK continued the next day with the first case study for the batch. All groups of 5-6 were to prepare the presentations on a case that appeared in the Harvard Review. The class which was to be an introduction to the case study approach, was conducted by Saji, one of the better known and more admired Professors on campus. I must say that he was really good. The presentation that my group had made, did not deal with the case at all. The way Prof. Saji explained it made us all appear to be fools. I hope that I am able to see problems in this way soon.

Sunday was totally free and although almost half of our batch went to Mahe beach today, I thought it better to stay back. Yesterday's experiences notwithstanding, I was also feeling sleepy and dead tired. The good part is that I was able to continue with my jogging and gym on the third consecutive day and if this becomes a habit, nothing like it for my currently unfit, flabby body.

I went to the city in the evening with Abhijit on my bike. The city is decent enough and the markets, though closed, looked promising. We had some snacks at a place called Al-Bake near the Baby Hospital circle. We even went to the Crown theatre and watched the evening show of "Walking Tall". This movie stars The Rock and there is nothing to write about it except the fact that it seemed to be inspired from Mithunda flicks of today. The movie had nothing but guns and more guns. Rock plays a character who comes back to his hometown to find that it is infested by drug trafficking and gambling. He makes it his duty to cleanse the city and that is what he does...end of story...end of movie.

Last but not the least, if the readers of this blog (are there any???) are wondering about the length of this post or about why I did not post yesterday, the reason is that the computer center at IIMK was down for maintenance and it is only now that the machines are up and running after some two days of maintenance work.

The people who went to Mahe beach are not back yet and I guess that they must be having a good time. I don't know what is happening but what I do know is that if it goes on like this, I for one, am sure going to be an unknown quantity in the batch of 2006 at IIMK.