Kurukshetra – Do you have it in you to be the last one standing?

Our experience: The Journey from Mumbai to Bhubaneswar and then back to Mumbai

Bahuth lambi chowdi kahani hai… I shall try my best to present it crisp…

12th October 2006 10:30 pm
2 days before the start of our diwali vacations… I somehow managed to get my tickets booked earlier and had reached home by that time…

Tring Tring… Amit calling…I ended up waking everyone up at home when I let out a shriek… “Woooow thts a good news… Our paper got selected!!”

1st November 2006 04:30 am

Terribly tired and deprived of sleep, we somehow managed to catch a Taxi at that hr to airport… Worse state was Amit’s after receiving the much dreaded b’day kicks from those victims who were literally waiting for this day to come..Ganga and I managed to catch some sleep onboard… But poor Amit could neither sit nor stand with his seat belts tied. Vishal was fultoo engrossed in his new hobby. Shooting clouds from inside the flight.

08:30 am : We reached Kolkatta. Managed to get a taxi after some 20 odd mins. Decided to take a short tour of Kolkatta. The taxiwala agreed to take us to a place for breakfast, wait for us there, take us to places around and finally drop us at Howrah by 1 pm. We went round and round almost half of the city (via Park street) of Kolkatta in search of breakfast. Our states went to the worst from worse. At last by 10:30 we found a Haldiram’s outlet. From there we went to Victoria memorial and then visited the famous bridges of Kolkatta and finally landed at Howrah at 1:20 pm. Had a hurried lunch and boarded our train to Bhubaneswar at 1: 35 pm.


10:30 pm : Finally we reached XIMB. Pleasant weather was welcoming and so was our assigned buddy Pradyum of XIMB. Xburns (campfire and a tug-of-war for students of XIMB) was going on when we entered the campus which was filled with greenery. Well laid roads and planned buildings – We were comparing what ever we saw there with our SPJAIN campus. Our Mess, Bistro and classrooms – Thinking about them was reassuring. :-)

The day finally got over and we managed to catch the most awaited sleep after the longest day. For Amit it was one hell of a B’day.

The next day simply passed with our preparations and a panel discussion in the evening on the topic “ Indian Steel sector- The way ahead ”.

3rd November 2006 12:00 am:

Ganga's B'day.. Had lotsa fun singing and dancing. We jus posed as if we are kicking him and took snaps. :-)

3rd November 2006 08:30 am

ENTERING GURUKUL

The D day dawned. It was a sense of pride indeed for me to be there competing against the likes of IIM ABCK, XLRI, MDI, TAPMI and XIMB. After wishing each other good luck we took different ways to our respective venues.

I was totally blank that morning. No fear… No tension…No expectation…No anxiety… Blank means blank… We were told as soon as we entered that we would be presenting first. First mover’s advantage proved to be a disadvantage. The projector did not co-operate. With few hits here and there we got it working. I tried to crack a joke in the meantime and somehow got the judges smiling. Finally we started again with a Good Morning to all.

Our presentation was finally over and with every team coming up on stage the competition grew fierce. After couple of hours results were out. Ganga and Vishal (MarkVeda) progressed to Chakravyuh, the next round. The competing teams in MarkVeda being equally strong all the four teams were qualified to the next round. Amit and I stood first in OpVeda and it was indeed rewarding for the efforts that went into the making of the paper after much research and survey.

Here ends the first part of the kahani…

4 of us were rejoicing as we entered the next round.
What happens next? What awaited us in CHAKRAVYUH?
How much more memorable did Ganga's B'day become?

See ya soon with more interesting parts of our AdVeNturous trip.

Cheers!
Sukanya.