Friday, September 15, 2006

L.E.M.O.D.

L.E.M.O.D.
It was during my class 11. One day a poster was put up on the school notice board with the letters L E M O D in large and bold. And quite a few people were gathered around it. Now, my first reaction was somebody had misspelt lemon. But immediate second thoughts said what silly thinking. So after craning my neck over the small bunch of not so small people gathered there, managed to read the writing underneath.

LEMOD stood for Living Every Moment Of Day. It was a kind of camp for exactly 24 hours from 6 in the morning to next day 6 in the morning. There were lots of activities scheduled in the 24 hours. activities both in groups and individuals. It was billed to be 24 hours of fun and enjoyment. It was a wonderful experience for the people attending the camp.

Unfortunately, I could not attend this camp. Then, why am I writing about this?
LEMOD was an exercise to make you appreciate time. People are always cmplaining that they do not have enough time. They are unable to do something as they are not able to find time to do it. If this is the case, then how do some others get the time. This given that there is equal amount of time available for everyone.

This is one of the first things I learnt after joining an IIM. There is enough time and how you manage it in an effective and efficient way is upto you. To the outside world, there is a feeling that life in a B-School specially in an IIM is very, very hectic. Students (or rather participants as we are called) hardly get time for any extra activity. Its studies, studies and studies all the time.

Not all of this is completely true. Life here is a bit hectic.The study load is also there. But inspite of all this its quite enjoyable. And I feel here that the concept of LEMOD comes into play. There are 24 hours in a day. 24 hours means 1440 minutes which comes out to be 86400 seconds. This actually is a lot of time. Enough time to get all the academic work done, connect with people, engage in various extra-curricular activities and get some sleep too. So here I am actually putting an almost forgotten learning into practice. The concept of Living Every Moment Of Day. Or simply speaking the concept of LEMOD.

Monday, September 04, 2006

A tale of Two Cities

First let me make something clear. This post is not about the book "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. Its quite a nice book, one of the classics of English literature. But it doesn't have anything to do with this post. Only the title has been borrowed from Mr. Dickens' masterpiece. So, you may ask why have I named this post as "A Tale of Two Cities".

The two cities referred to in the title are Patna and Jamshedpur,the two cities where I have spent most of my life. Patna, the capital of Bihar, my birthplace, where I spent my childhood and did my initial schooling and which is my present home also. Jamshedpur, the steel city, which I called my home for nearly a dozen years. Two cities 500 km apart, but both of which holding a special place in my heart.

But after having spent the past 5 years away from home, there is a feeling of detachment from both the places. Both cities give rise to different feelings in me. Patna, where my parents, my brother, almost my entire family lives. But I feel lost like a total stranger unable to relate to the place. This was not the place which I have memories of. Jamshedpur, where my alma mater, Loyola, is located. A place where I made many friends. But my friends are now spread all across the world, some studying, some working, some settled into family life. I am not going to find many familiar faces there too.

So there is a sense of detachment now. A feeling of belonging to no place. There are other places too. Part of my early days where spent in Nagpur, but the place doesn't have many memories. Dhanbad, where I spent 4 of the most wonderful years doing my engineering. Duliajan, cant call it a city or even a town, but where I spent one year working. And now Indore, for the next two years.

And then I do not know, where life is going to take me. I have become a wanderer who is on a journey, a journey called life.