just like that

In the first of this two part series, we shall trace the story of how Vimal actually got elected as an acadcom member and also his initial days in the job.

The year was 2006. The last week of the first month had just begun. The SWAC-EC elections had just got over and the batch had elected the eleven people who would head the various committees. It was now time for the member elections (The members shall work along with the secretary of the respective committees). While everyone’s eyes were focused on the placom elections, Vimal and Wayne (The SWAC co-ordinator) went around scouting for a possible candidate from their section that they could request to stand for the acadcom member. They went around asking people whom they thought would do a good job as an acadcom member. They finally zeroed in on one Mr. Vivek chopra who at that point of time was contemplating about standing for ‘Alumnicom’ member. They explained to him how Acadcom was a much more important role and why he was needed there. He promised to consider this. In the evening, with hardly a few hours left for the filing of nominations, the duo once again went to see Mr.Chopra and see if he had made up his mind. He had indeed made up his mind and he would be standing for the ‘alumnicom’ member elections.

Faced with the daunting task of finding a nominee from their section, Wayne made a mistake that the entire batch would regret for the year to come. He requested Vimal, the innocent bystander, to stand for the member election. Now, Vimal had always set his eyes on the Quiz club (which is an interest club and whose elections would happen later) as he felt it matched his lifestyle of no politics and at the same time being responsible for something he liked. So when Wayne suddenly threw this missile at him, he was unprepared for it. He tried to laugh off the preposterous suggestion but when similar salvos were fired from other allies, Vimal fell. He filed in the nomination just before dinner. Little did he know that the small signature was going to change his second year in ways he could have never imagined.

The Election Day was probably the darkest in the history of IIM Indore. Seventy three half-mad participants voted in Vimal as their acadcom member. A post-poll analysis suggested that most people had thought that this guy would most probably end up with single digit votes. Hence, they had voted for him in the hope that he wouldn’t feel too bad if he got a few more votes. Talk of winning an election on sympathy votes!

With Pawan(P) having already been elected the secretary, Roshan(R) and Vimal(V) completed the three member team which will handle all the student issues regarding academics in the coming year. The team, which came to be known by the acronym ‘PRV’, started off briskly just like all teams do at the start. They got themselves introduced to the various faculty members and started working on the electives for the second year. Vimal, though, was very apprehensive to start off with. He even feared telling the Prof that his time was up when the class time was over. He had a difficult time listening to all the long stories that the Profs were waiting to unleash on any participant who dared to enter their rooms in the afternoons. In his words, “I sincerely thought I had made a big mistake by coming into acadcom”. However, time and PGPOffice change everything. By the end of term in March, he had mastered the art of answering all participant queries. After all, how difficult it can be to learn to say “We are looking into it” or “We will look into it”.

It was at this time that Team PRV realized that there was a lot of budget left over from last year which could be put to good use by conducting some events. Vimal simply jumped at the opportunity as unlike acadcom work, conducting events was something he enjoyed doing. He came up with a “truly novel” series of daily events called “Brain-I” (in keeping with the tradition of IIM Indore to name everything with an ‘I’ in it). The game was simple – Every night in the newsgroup, few questions would be posted in the newsgroup based on the class readings for that day and what the Prof had actually taught. The participants simply had to mail the correct answers and stood to win money if they were among the first three correct entries. The game fell flat in exactly ten days. With not even three responses coming in after the first few days, Acadcom was left with no option but to close shop and concentrate on their bread and butter – postponing assignments, projects, quizzes, birthdays oops!(Just got a little carried away there).

All these experiences hardened Vimal into a lean, mean fighting machine (!) capable of standing up to any Prof for the cause of…for the cause of…well, forget it. Anyways, when the summer break came in April, he thought the worst was behind him. After all, second year was supposed to be chill. With these pleasant and soothing thoughts, he headed off to Bangalore to start his internship with Radio Mirchi. Little did he know how second year in acadcom was going to change his life for ever…..

(To be concluded)

February 18, 4.30 PM – My last class in the two years here. I made my last presentation and I gave my last ‘Thank you’ speech to the Prof at the end of the class. I officially completed all course requirements of the PGDM program. Hence, I hereby declare myself an ‘MBA’:)