Thursday, June 4, 2009

Things I will miss @ Great Lakes


10 things that I am going to miss at Great Lakes -

10)
College building – The ancient relic is being struck off the heritage list of the archeological society, cause finally it vacated, dismantled and moved to a posh, new campus. Ever tried finding the Mansarovar hall in the building? You really need to be a kith and kin of Sherlock Holmes to do so. Not to forget the numerous secret ways and staircases to reach Veeranam. The seminar hall was the best idea of the architect. With huge screens and speakers placed all over the place, I have had the pleasure of adlabs movies in my own college. And off course who would not want to capture a chair behind the pillars in classes and complete the unfinished sleep!! The college would have moved to platinum rated building with the best facilities, but this old treasure hunt structure will always be for me, the place to be in.

9)
Examinations – I guess these were the most victorious moments in our year. We used to bet on who would be the first one to leave the exam hall. Not to forget our dearest colony aunties (read: supervisors) who thought that it was their moral responsibility to disturb us by threatening at least few of the poor souls who used to supposedly cheat (read: blink, sneeze or coughJ). Now this was lol…cheat from whom was a question though…because no one ever knew what the right answer was!! The worst of the lot were the open book and open laptop examinations. With internet being switched off for these tests, did they know that our bluetooth enabled machines did bridge the required gap…....J The group studies on night before the exam was extreme fun. Life would put forth many such tests in our life ahead but never any such preparatory leaves.

8)
Tapri – If you are a Great Laker, your day could not end without at least one tapri visit a day. I am sure most of us would have a 100% attendance if it would have been taken here. If I wanted to find someone, I always knew where to go. From innumerable b-plans that have taken shape here to discussions on clueless placements to come, from F1, cricket, squash, and football, from politics to college events, from birthday celebrations to exam after shocks, you name it and it was discussed here with the best tea that you can ever get in entire Chennai. It is rightly said that the time that you enjoy wasting is not a wasted time!!

7)
Acads and Admin – Great Lakes would not have been the same if it were not for them. We must have gone to them numerous times complaining to about every small thing – timetables, exam schedules, course materials, canteen food, A/C, college timings, every small thing. We have made much fun about the frequency of changing timetables of the course. We are sorry for all the pranks and fun that we played during the year. The help that you all provided through numerous events, placements, admissions, exams will never be forgotten. We know we can count on your blessings for the rest of our life.

6)
Library – Whoever put the ‘Silence Please’ board in the library would by now realized that it was worthless to do so. It was the noisiest place during the day in the entire college. Though we were threatened many times to be thrown out for talking loudly, with the air condition working to the best of its abilities and the t/v and media room just a stones throw away, the librarian had a tough time during the year.

5)
Shimla kitchen – The ‘Shimla Kitchen’ located on a not-so-Shimla like place was where we ate and cursed, yet ate the sambar masala filled chole and oil dipped bature for an entire year. Not to forget the numerous morsels of rice that I gulped down my throat so as to avoid stimulating my taste buds. We were sometimes blessed with a stock of Parle-G and Maggi that used to be served with much reluctance. Yet the lunch break was the most sought after time during the day. We may dine in a posh hotel or eat the best cuisines in the world, but it cannot match the fun of standing in long queues and fighting for an extra papad.

4)
Grades – This was the time when some of us felt completely elevated while some completely suicidal. It also gave us another reason to crib about the normalization techniques used to give the grades. The happiest of the lot were the ones who used to bag an A grade by free riding on a group project.

3)
Events and Parties – Who says that you cannot have fun in a one year MBA course. SWIM, HR Conclave, the numerous power talks and the most awaited Sangamitra. Bombarded with numerous assignments yet determined to put up a great show, we had our dance rehearsals from 12 am to 3 am in the night. The list is incomplete if I do not mention the numerous birthday parties celebrated at 12 in the night, movies at Satyam, the trip to Pondicherry, dozens of cheese burst pizzas ordered from Dominoes, the new years party, holi celebrations, the frequent visits to Ascendas. Even the thought of these times brings a cheer.

2)
Lectures and professors – From days when I was filled with guilt because I was almost caught napping to days of happily snoring away on last bench. From days when I read pages and pages of pre-reading material to days when I walked in the class completely clueless. All of us have gone through this. Class presentations were always fun. All the animosity would come up when we used to trouble each other by asking numerous questions during class presentations. People who bunked classes often ended up feeling stupid with nothing to do. They would miss the fun that they could have had in the class itself!! We really appreciate all our professors who kept our spirits high through endless days and who were never tired of solving our numerous doubts. The knowledge and the experience that they shared with us is something that we value very much and as we take a leave from their classes, we hope we do make them proud some day.

1)
Friends - This is the best treasure that I carry out of this college. It is said that the friends you sit with on the graduation day turn out to be your friends for life. I wish the same for me and every other student of the Champions batch. We are bound by similar experiences and memories of a time that will never come again. In the end, I would just say that our seniors were a little too early and our juniors a little late. Because there can be only one Champions batch – champions once, champions forever !!!

14 comments:

Alter(H)atePoint said...

This one is really fantastic- Gauri!!
Absolutely no doubt the year spent at Great Lakes wont have been the same without the tremendous camaraderie among the Champions. One thing you missed out is the Purshotaman Shop where we gulped down litres of sambhar, uncountable number of fluffy idlis, vadas and dosas!! While going through this post , I almost felt like I am reliving all those fun moments spent at Great lakes :) Really once in a lifetime journey.....

Gauri Lonkar said...

lol..yuss offcourse..i cannot forget the litres of sambar that i have eaten... :)

Knock or knocked said...

Dont u think u need to add Assignments aka Google ka Ashirwad ..
Excellent writeup yaar.. GLIM, what journey it was :)

Gauri Lonkar said...

look whos talking abt assignments !! huh !! that free rider point was specially for u ..lol...;)..and how dare u write "GLIM"...BPR will kill u!!

Unknown said...

Superb post.You could add few more things like group of ppl who considered them elite ones LIPer's, then Rocky's assignments n of course placements(dunno sum1 would throw me out of process since i wrote this), our honorable honor code who bunked lectures , mr. doubtfire n our outbound.List can go on and on.

Gauri Lonkar said...

yus sur all points taken !!! I guess i missed out on how we played dumb charades on placement day and ate amazing food at Mariott cause we had nothing to do !! Wot a placement week...not one batch will have this pleasure ;) ..lol

Nihit Nirmal said...

Awesome stuff...was able to get me nostalgic even after one year :)

Soumya Subramanian said...

Lovely post Gauri... im sure every Champion who reads it will nod his/her head & smile(in agreement)for every single point of yours.

I did!! :) :)

Gauri Lonkar said...

Thanks soumya :)
I find myself so easily bored now a days after a super year at Great Lakes !!

Unknown said...

Gauri... Such a perfect description of last one year.... i could actually picture the past one year in front of me with your words... There could me many things added but this summarize the most of it and it is so generalize that everyone of us can relate it to…. Where was this hidden talent till now???????

Unknown said...

Wonderful writing Gauri... Had a few drops rolling down as i was reading. I just miss those days very badly. Never knew it would leave such beautiful memories in our minds forever. It is sure a very memorable phase of my Life!

Gauri Lonkar said...

senti senti on the wall !! :-)
Thanks to all :)

Gurmeet Singh said...

I never knew we had a great writer in our class... perfect narration of that wonderful 1 yr.

Gurmeet Singh said...

I never knew that we had a great writer in our class... perfect naration of that wonderful year spent @ GL

 

HeartFelt Template by Ipietoon Cute Blog Design and Bukit Gambang