For some strange reason, my notice period seemed to be the longest month. Not that I wanted to leave Yahoo, but still, it seemed like the 23rd of April just refused to come. The last week though, passed by in the blink of an eye, and before I knew it, I had boarded the train to Chennai (after the sweetest farewells at office, home and the station, of course). I was all set to join Great Lakes Institute of Management at Chennai.
The first thing I noticed after getting down at the station was how very similar it was to Howrah. Cleaner, for sure, but still, quite similar. The weather is just like Calcutta. Hot, sunny and humid. Even the taxis are like the ones back home – black and yellow ambassador cars!
The Saidapet office was easy to locate and the registration process was a long one during which I made many new friends. Finally we were taken to the buses that would take us to the campus. Most of us slept throughout the journey but I was lucky enough to wake up at the beautiful stretches of ECR, where it lies surrounded by water on 2 sides. Wow.. to say the least…
90 minutes later I had my first glimpse of the Great Lakes campus and what struck me was the whiteness and the cleanliness. And the campus looked even better, washed in the soothing colours of dusk. We could not have received a better welcome. We were taken to the Cafeteria where we had tea and snacks and after that we collected our room keys.
That was another pleasant surprise. This is the first time I am actually away from “home” and my first hostel experience. So, to be honest, I did not really expect anything. But the hostel (at least the one for girls) is like home. In fact, I still inadvertently blurt out “K let’s go back home” when what I actually want to tell my friends is “Let’s go back to the hostel.”
When I opened the door, I was greeted by this clean room, having all the furniture and space I would need. A bed, the biggest wardrobe I have ever had all to myself, a desk, chair, stool, book shelf, shoe rack, shelf and dust bin. It took me quite some time to properly set up all my stuff but I DID IT! Yay yay! So check out some pics of my room…
The wash rooms and loos are really clean. 6 of each on each floor and 2 washing machines as well. And though there are 26 of us on every floor, I am yet to come across someone waiting in queue for the loo, washroom or washing machine… In spite of the hectic schedules here, we somehow don’t face that problem and I am so glad!
The evening and night were both rather eventful… Our seniors arranged an “ice-breaking session” for us. My mentor was there as well and I was hoping he would show me some mercy, but the Patriots (Batch of 2010) obviously believe in fair and equal treatment for everyone! It was a lot of fun, actually, and they were very sweet (in retrospect!) because they did manage to bring us together. Kudos to them for that!
Comments
one common thing amongst 300 odd folks is the "let's go home!!" :D