28

I hate to sound like a octogenarian by talking about good ol' days but i couldn't resist! I am deeply disappointed by the way things are going on here in MBA!

Currently, End term exams are going on,But the only clue you would get about that is on the obscure corner of the notice board.Nothing has changed here.

Things were different back in the good ol' engineering days (Here i go!). Exam is a "EVENT" you experience with your friends. We gather around in the name of group studies and well, it doesn't matter who starts the discussion about the specific body measures of the tamil hottie, what matters is that we have a fruitful discussion at the end of which everybody will be exhausted and we start our long march to the Tea stall.

Every college will have a Tea stall or restaurant nearby which serves as the unofficial meeting point for the students. It will be the busiest point in the city on those exam nights! People greet each other with the question,"Started studying?" for which usual reply woud be"Nay! about to".Its completely different matter that this "About to start" guy will end up scoring frigging 93% in the exam!

When the nights belonged to the Tea shop, the evenings belonged to the Xerox shop nearby. Xeroxes of text books, Xeroxes of notes, Mini xerox,Micro xerox..... The guy taking the xeroxes would dictate the passing and failure of atleast 60% of the student janta!

Barring a few "Freakish" people who get medals and stuff, the one thing that occupied the minds of all the students was the number 28.

28 is the magic figure which divides the pass and fail.

28 is the number Which represents the culmination of your efforts during the previous nite.

28 is the ferry which transported you from Supplementaryville to the Wonderland.

28 is the Holy grail every engineering student seek.

The whole strategy of the students revolve around 28. Which chapters to study, which questions to attempt, how many pages to write..whatever may be the dilemma, its all for the 28.

1.618 may be the divine ratio, but for us 28 is the divine number!

Gone are those golden days in this MBA. Everyday here consists an exam,quiz,assignment or some deadline so there is no Sacro sanctness attached to the end terms anymore! Every night stretches into 3 or 4' 0 clock so there is no fun in doing a night out anymore! Everything needed is supplied by the college and there is no need for xerox anymore! And thanks to the open book system and case based questions, there is no need to mug up the text book anymore! Thanks to the CGPA and relative grading, There is no significance for 28 anymore!

Everything that was occasional and special during my engineering days became mundane and regular in my MBA life...

I miss those panic sticken conversations post midnight at tea stall.

I miss waiting in line to take the micro xerox of classmate's notes.

I miss the anxiety that grips the soul before looking at the question paper.

And more than anything, I miss aiming for 28!!