MarkFest 08!!!

He just asked the students sitting in the row ahead of mine to close their books. Tau [tau, literally meaning paternal side uncle, finds a versatile use in the northern India, in this case a senior of our college who I suppose will receive dual degree; one masters in business administration and other masters in sycophancy] is now standing [on our heads], pointing out students with open books, laptops or those talking. Well this is no exam going in which ‘Tau’ is playing the invigilator; this is Markfest-08 aka marketing meet.

I suppose you are familiar with ‘the meet culture’ rampantly prevalent in Asia’s biggest and largest B school [if not then refer to older posts like the HR Summit]. So I am at the marketing meet, and giving you ‘ankhon dekha haal’ from the audi [not ‘The Audi’, but auditorium].

Although I wanted to start with this category ‘6 to 9 show’ [taking you live at different places] for a long time, but was not sure how to go about it. So after lot of ‘chintan and manan’ I finally zeroed onto marketing meet as the inaugural venue. This is partly the reason why no post for over a week. Moreover the feedbacks for the review of ‘Flashbacks of a Fool’ and ‘. . . .’ were not very good, a friend said about the post ‘what was that, starting from coffee moving to Quantum of Solace and finishing at do I really deserve it?’

Back to the meet, first half was good. It was supposed to be entertaining and at times it was. But the second half, we already knew will turn out like this. So many speakers, most of them getting their once in a lifetime opportunity to speak in front of a readily available crowd hence determined to make most of it; the sleep infected by their boring lectures alongwith the lunch, which just got into empty stomachs, makes the survival a tough task. But facing all the challenges and hardships are the brave students. However for how long will the brave be able to hold on, I don’t know.

One of the speaker just said ‘I suppose most of the audience are students’. Well done sunshine! Who else do you think can be threatened [with cutting the internal marks, reducing attendance, debarring from exams] and forced to sit quietly idle for a whole day without even a loo break? The next guy after him started with, just few years back I was sitting there listening to esteemed speakers and now I am standing here. So I guess today you will have your revenge. Around 30 minutes down the line, the dude refuses to leave the dais, looks like he is determined to prove me right.

The dude sitting in front of me [am sitting in the last row, so everyone is sitting in front of me] on the right side just fell [asleep], my condolence, may the peace be with him. I can hear someone’s fast footsteps approaching towards me from my rear left side, and pass he goes to ‘sleeping beauty’ and wakes him up. Damn its Tau again. He won’t let any innocent soul rest in peace in these turbulent times. Tau just left with special instructions to one of his ‘Men in Black’ [these are mostly poor first sem students of MBA or BBA who wants to get involved in college activities, and ends up as security guards in black suits] to keep a strict vigil in this comparatively disturbed part of the audi, where the frequency and number of falling souls is maximum.

Its 4 p.m. and the meet is scheduled to end by 5. But still 5 speakers are left, if I have not fumbled with the track record, so no chance of finishing in time.

One of the faculty members just came and snatched the mobile phones of 1, 2 and 3, no 4 students in blitzkrieg speed. The lady sitting on my left is very upset and angry with this. She was not talking on the phone [actually none was, just killing time either by playing message-message or some game], as she was messaging her mom that she’ll be late in returning home. Poor chap! 5 minutes to the incident but she refuses to cool down, and the angry young woman after cursing him and cribbing for 10 minutes have finally stood up to fight for her rights.

Its 5:30 still 2 more speakers left. one of the Men in Black just gave a nasty stare to 2 guys sitting on the floor, behind the chairs, doing some studies and asked them to close their books. I don’t understand what is the issue with studying? With end-sem exams just 10 days away, why are they so apprehensive about people who are trying to utilize their time? I don’t know, but finally the last speaker said thank you and now everyone wants to rush out.

Now the prize distribution ceremony, followed by facilitation of the remaining speakers and finally the vote of thanks by a teacher, at a time when all the speakers have left and the students are least interested in listening and finally the meet is about to end with an announcement of an extra class tomorrow i.e. a holiday [looks like today was not sufficient] and now the mara-mari of collecting the I-cards [well teachers in the morning collect the I-card of all the students present so that they can’t run in the middle and teachers can easily keep a record of who all are present].

Nevertheless in the end am on my way home with my friend, cursing the college for wasting one full day, when the exams are just round the corner. Oh by the way the angry young woman came back with her phone and a big smile of victory on her face.

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