Am I Falling in Love?

It’s 12:13 in the night. Almost all the exams of Term 2 got over today and tomorrow no lectures! I am relaxed to the core! Music is playing in full volume in my laptop “Haule haule ho jayga pyar”….. Am I finally falling in love with the place?

I came here on 23rd April, 2009, a nervous girl with a mountain of pain of leaving her cocoon for the first time and stepping out into the outside world to live all alone 1355 Km away from home. I used to keep swapping between Yatra.com and the tentative time-table sent by Durga Ma’am to look for dates to go home….or run home should I say!

And today, almost 4 months into the course I am actually taking time out to write about my life here! Unbelievable….even to myself! As I took a tour into my emotional journey at Great Lakes, I opened the blog site and started taking a look at the blogs written by the senior batches about their life at Great Lakes. A wide smile adorned my face even before I knew, as I traversed through their journey. I started thinking what is it that is stirring even me, a homesick mortal like this place? Bits and pieces of events from the last 4 months started flashing in front of eyes: PKV Sir’s “Excuse me can I write with your permission…” as he boogied up and down the aisle of the huge swanky classroom trying with all enthusiasm to explain the “Annova” technique to us. Be it Dr. Mankad’s elegant narration of application of micro-economics in real-life or Dr. Paul Prabhakar’s excellent illustration of “multi-part pricing”! And many more such awe-striking lectures from experiences all over the world.

I remembered the first day we discovered a blue house across the field from our campus selling omlette and Maggi! We were thrilled! We actually went into the kitchen and cooked…. And then sat on the floor of their drawing room and had the most sumptuous feast in a long time. The other day I went for a walk around the campus and discovered the beautiful path flanked by thin forest on one side and green paddy field on the other. A walk along that road proved to breathe fresh life into my otherwise neck-deep work schedule. Have I started liking the food in the Sodexho cafeteria these days? Not really but that gives me a chance to vent out my anger over a hot cup of tea and bond with my friends as we collectively batter the bad menu selection by the Sodexho staff or the half-cooked chapatti, after all what works better as a connecting medium than collective accuse of something else (something taught in Group Processes class…Wow I can relate to real-life situations!!).

Two days back the Bajaj brothers along with the ex and the current dean of Northwestern University came to inaugurate the second phase of our campus at the invitation of Uncle Bala, it was a great moment for all Great Lakers as I proudly uploaded the pics of the event in Orkut and updated the status message “Met the Bajaj’s today…. At our very own campus” for all friends and acquaintances to take notice. And this cute little air-conditioned room….all to me giving me a chance to relax and reflect upon the journey so far and giving me yet another chance to feel proud to be a Great Laker. Yes “haule haule” slowly I am falling in love…. With Great Lakes!

By Srija Majumdar

AlumniSpeak at GreatLakes

                  Last week saw the Placement Committee and Alumni committee jointly organize an Alumni session at Great Lakes. With choices of majors, minors and empirical studies looming large in the minds of the Patriots (The christened name of the class of 2010), the time was ripe for an industry insight.

                 A sleepy Sunday morning saw alumni from the Pioneers, Crusaders, JCs and the Champions batch (Class of 2005 to 2008) pouring in. The day began with a guided tour of the campus for the alumni. For many it was a first look at our sprawling new LEED rated green campus and boy were they impressed… Folks from the Pioneers and Crusaders batch reminisced about the formative years of the college at the old Saidapet campus. ‘Great Lakes always had a wonderful intellectual capital and now coupled with world class infrastructure the school has indeed come of age!’ opined one of the Pioneers.  The basketball and beach volleyball court were instant hits with some even suggesting that we have the counseling session over a game of basketball!!

               Thankfully better sense prevailed, and the orientation session began with a general address for all 260 patriots in the main hall. After the initial round of introductions, the alumni got down to business. We had alumni speaking on opportunities for prospective Marketing, Operations, Strategy and Finance majors. Then we began with the one-on-one orientation sessions. Each Patriot was assigned a counselor based on his/her intended major. The patriot then spent the next 10 minutes picking the brains of the counselor who was only too happy to help.  The counseling continued for a good 8 hours and by the end of it both parties were exhausted but wiser for the experience. The Patriots got some much needed perspective while the Alumni got a chance to give back to their alma mater.

All in a day's work! - The Great Lakes Alumni

By:-

Rishi Unnikrishnan