Disorientation Week

From Musical chairs in the finance room to email flames, (Dis) Orientation Week 2011 had it all. The first 2 weeks done, and we already feel like we’ve been here forever!

Registration Day:
Finally, first look at the mad class we are going to be! The year starts of with shady dancing on stage, in Khemka. After we sufficiently entertained the O-week team, we were allowed to proceed to registration. The one part none of us got was the musical chairs in the fee payment section. Why was it necessary for us to keep sliding across those benches?

The party that night was very polite, for a while… then we had a bevarage overload. A clear sign of the impending liver assault. And we got grief from the O-week team for leaving before 7am. We’ll show you…

O-Week:
Not sure who designed the whole O-week, but if the point was to make us realize that 4hours of sleep is a luxury, congratulations. At the end of the week, we already felt like we had been on campus for a year.
The highlight of the week had to be the traffic light party. No, not because it was so much fun, but because it looked like a damn Christmas party. Everyone seemed to be in red. Rather embarrassing showing up in green. Yes, we stayed till 7am this time. Alum reactions ranged from “We’re glad we’re leaving this place behind to a batch like yours” to “Sob… sniff… sob.”

Then finally came time to start section parties, where the alums managed to convince some morons in my batch that it was an ISB tradition to drink a mix of every intoxicant present in the room. Lucky for them, liver damage is covered by the mandatory medical insurance…wait, is it??
Do you see a trend here yet? No? Let me spell it out - loud music and drunk folk!!

Also, don’t touch the bull. If you touch the bull, Atma will shoot you, in the head, even if he has to do it from Mumbai! If I have to hear another story about “don’t touch the bull,” I will shoot some one.

Pre-Terms:
No one knew what to expect, but we were hoping to be surprised. Surprised we were. Being taught Business Statistics by an accomplished jazz and blues singer, who also happens to be a professor at IIT-Chennai qualifies as surprise. More than that, the LTs are an amazingly comfortable place to sleep. It’s like they were designed to make us pass out. I was still polite and trying really hard but some people realized their bags make good pillows.
Alcohol is a current asset and a long term liability; sleep is accounts payable. Let’s see you balance that sheet!

Email spam – I don’t care what is considered as good, bad or ugly. But it is ridiculous to see people mailing the entire batch to inform us about a lost blackberry cover. Oh wait, I can see some one raising their hand in to say, “I agree with his point.” There are no CP marks in pre-terms.

Talent Night:
Every one took jolly pot shots at “diversity” at ISB. No matter how many different types of monkeys you get on campus, they all thought of the same theme. There is a significant population who believe cross-dressing is a “talent”. I’m not complaining, just stating facts. Whatever makes you happy.

Jokes apart, I got along with my class thanks to all the practice section. Who ever started Talent night – thank you. Who ever decided to make us party from 11pm that night to 7am and then scheduled mandatory sessions at 9am – I hope your sadistic desires were satiated.

The quitter section:
Not the people who decided to move to the IIMs or other B-schools, this is about those moron smokers who assumed they would quit while at ISB. The only thing they managed to quit is buying cigarettes! Those who said they won’t drink, were throwing back shots. The gang that was going to lose weight discovered Hyderabadi biriyani.

Now that term 1 has started, the whole batch has automatically sobered down. The same crowd from 5am at 08 Lounge is now inhabiting the LRC till 2am. The “arbit CP“ gang sobered down. And most importantly, no one knows where the bull is.

This is going to be a great year! I hope to write to you all about the good, the great and the rest.

Dheeraj Chintala Reddy, Class of 2012