• About Us
      Asia’s 1 st LEED Platinum Rated Campus

      Asia’s 1st LEED Platinum Rated Campus

      About Us

      • Chairman's Message
      • Vice Chairman & CEO
      • Dean's Message
      • Governing Council
      • Business Advisory Council
      • Academic Advisory Council
      • Work With Us
      • Mandatory Disclosure
      • Anti-Ragging Notice

      TERM ZERO

      Media

      • News
      • Events
      • In Media
      • Media Kit

      Rankings

      Accreditations

      NIRF

      Campus

      Blog

      Annual Events

      • Convocation
      • TEDxGLIMChennai
      • L'Attitude
      • Digital Symposium
      • Sangamitra
      • Annual Alumni Meet
      • SWIM
      • IEC
      • Human Capital Management
  • Programs
      Transform and Lead

      Transform and Lead

      Full Time Programs

      PGPM

      One Year MBA for professionals with work experience

      Learn More Apply Now

      PGDM

      Two Year MBA for professionals with 0-2 years of work experience

      Learn More Apply Now

      EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

      Partner with us for customized learning solutions for your organisation

      Learn More

      Corporate Programs

      PGXPM

      Executive program for Mid & Senior Level working professionals

      Learn More Apply Now APP. Deadline: 30th August, 2020

      PGPM Flex

      Weekend management program for young working professionals

      Learn More Apply Now APP. Deadline: 30th August, 2020

      MBA in Business Analytics

      Family Enterprises Management

  • Faculty & Research
      Ranked 6th

      Ranked 6 th

      by NIRF ranking in teaching and learning among all B-Schools in the country

      Faculty

      • Full Time Faculty
      • Visiting Faculty
      • Adjunct Faculty

      Research

      • Faculty Editors
      • Papers & Journal Publications
      • Case Studies & Books
      • Conference Proceedings

      Centers of Excellence

      • Centre For Excellence in Retail Management
      • Great Lakes Centre For Management Research
      • Kotler - Srinivasan Centre for Research in Marketing
      • Centre for Excellence in Business Analytics and Business Intelligence
      • CET
      • Union Bank Centre for Banking Excellence

      Conferences

      • NASMEI
      • Financial Conference
  • Recruiters & Companies

      “Great Location for Talent. We are happy to continue visiting and having budding professionals join us and grow their careers.”

      Anil Visal

      Partner - Deloitte India

      Campus Recruitment

      • Recruitment Process
      • PGDM Class Profile 2018-20
      • PGPM Class Profile 2019-20
      • Past Recuiters
      • Student Achievements
      • Recruiters Speak

      Internships

      • Recruitment Process
      • PGDM Class Profile 2019-21
      • Live Projects

      Placement Reports

      • PGPM
      • PGDM
      • Internship Report

      Leadership Series

      • Titans Speak
      • Industry Lecture Series
      • Thought Leader Series

      Talent Listings

  • Alumni

Yaadon ki baarat

May 20, 2012 | Posted by shashwatrai << back to blog

Have you seen the movie ‘Yaadon ki baarat’!!

Well I haven’t except for that famous song ‘chura liya hai tumne’ where a strange looking actor cracks dialogues like

‘hum jis mehfil me gaate hai waha log sote nahi jagte hain’ in midst of his laughing mandali and the gorgeous Zeenat Aman, plays with the guitar as if auditioning for ‘chak de’.

Moreover the whole theme of the movie revolves around siblings separated by fate (where reuniting as a family lies in the song they learned as children).

And so also this title that reminds me of the year went by – that the Mighty Mamallas are destined to traverse, that we as Spartans would carry around like the billa number 786 hung on the ‘Deewar’ of our memories for time immemorial.

Cut to scene 1 act 1:

Present: Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

Sitting on the edge of the kumayun range of Himalayas, in the hills of Ramgarh at around 7000 feet above ground (Great Lakes is at sea level), in the abode of gods I find a speechless invitation on my mobile – a text from my mentor inviting me to write a final blog for the college website.

As a writer, I have been on a journey of sorts in the last one month gulping every ink of the novels I had missed out in the past year due to the MBA program. The serendipity of the place is such that it doesn’t take a Sherlock Homes to dive in the memories and recollect the best of the last days of the finishing school we dearly called as GLIM, an oxymoron to the bright and cheerful feelings of all its stakeholders!!!

Scene 2 act 1:

The station!

Imagine hordes of cartons piled up, everyone scrambling for that extra box and the tape and the scissors playing hide and seek, the jury meanwhile from ‘Gati’ ( perhaps high school pass) unleashing a tight discipline on the business graduates!! The corridor between the anna shop and the clinic was a testimony to the chaotic feelings that every Spartan was witnessing. The lucky amongst us were busy transporting ourselves to the other world while the few left behind were sitting tight on the shores of Great Lakes with a fishing rod, waiting for that exclusive catch to come their way.

Everywhere we met to everyone we met, there were tearless drops, hugs and promises to keep in touch. No one was spared: from the security bhaiyas to posing with Profs, everyone was ticked and cleared from our wish list. The last supper in cafeteria, the last coffee in bistro, the last meals in every restaurants of Mahabs mixed with those crazy talks, the last sunset on the beach of Radisson and that last stroll in the college campus were all rehearsed like some ancestral rituals.

The best part of the farewells for many was the numbers that came to say ‘goodbye’, for some groups it was the most awaited day of their MBA life (lol, although they would disagree now), for many it was the end of the world (magically many cynics fell in love in their last days) while for gypsies like me it was just something that was meant to be. I knew we were leaving never to meet and share our lives in ways that we did here. It was sob sob, gift wrapped and plastically smiled away in our departures.

Scene 2 act 2:

Vote your Caste!!

They say old habit dies hard. True.

Everyday checking the secret group on the facebook Spartan page, waiting for some interesting updates from people I knew and lived with for the past year, I tried falling back on the old days. When would the daring someone challenge the system, when a savior would show his patriotic genes and breakaway with his freedom speech or that satirical genius who would hold an opinion on everything that’s posted with his turmeric and salsa spicing the whole conversation. It was getting boring as however much I wanted I had to play the witness.

Fine the facebook page of Mamallas helped a little to hold on to our roots but you tell me, what would a kid know of his parent’s dreamy encounters and the legends thereafter??

The mails though helped with news of Spartans cracking good jobs every week. I felt responsibly relieved for my friends, my batch mates.

Scene 3 act 1:

Convocation blues

“Are you coming?”

“Have you lost your mind? What kind of a question dude, wouldn’t miss for the world da”

Every conversation revolved around finding out who all are on the list for the convocation, females desperately seeking opinions on their attires for the farewell party while the men lots worried more with the arrangements (if you know what I mean!!) than about the venue.

The night before the d-day, we received a mail declaring a list of the meritorious students with announcements of certificates and scholarships running in six digits!! Gosh I never knew that our college gave away so much cash, else perhaps would have been a lot more serious huh.. the 3 idiots scene running firmly in my mind, ‘dost fail ho jaye to dukh hota hai par agar dost first aa jaye to aur dukh hota hai’!

Scene 3 act2:

Yaadon ki baarat nikali hai phir…

‘The next speaker is Shashwat Rai who would recollect his time at Great Lakes. Please give a round of applause’

As my name was called out, the other host lent her wild fantasy in my ear.

“Dude, go leave a mark, tell them about her, the love of your life”

Damn, all the rehearsed rhetoric of the great speakers that I had heard, the great speeches talking on how management was the most noble profession of how it was the only antidote to the failed international politics, the excerpts from Steve Jobs’ Stanford dots and all of that went for a toss.

I was alone standing in front of a huge audience, juniors, peers, teachers and families listening intently to every word I spoke. And so I finished.

Satisfied and happy after luring the next batch with promises of bounty placements and fun on the beaches of mamallas, rightfully theirs after the namesake!

Scene 4 act 1:

Farewell party: The End – a new beginning!!

Suffering with a habit of reaching early to places which are foreign to me, I happened to crash the venue of our farewell party with my better half, long before any other Spartan arrived. The crime scene was bustling with energy, music in the background and people celebrating their togetherness. But was it our farewell or a fresher’s party for the Mamallas.

Suddenly the Guruji in me rose to the occasion. Catching hold of the nervous few I enquired,

“I don’t believe this! Is it a get together for you guys or a farewell of Spartans! Bachaji we have a tradition to withhold!!”

Prompt came the reply, “Sirjee kya farak padta hai, enjoy karo dance karo.. Chak de phatte, nap de killi, sau chuhe khake Haj ko chali billi”

I knew the time had come to move on. I lend my brain to every soul in that party who wanted to know what to expect – their future, shook my leg with the Spartans who attended the farewell and gladly packed my bags for a place that was far far away, away from the maddening rush of a place we fondly called “home” at Great Lakes.

“Manzil mil hi jayegie, bhatakte hue hi sahi.

Ghumrah to who hai jo ghar se nikle hi nahi!”

Signing off…

Shashwat Rai

Spartan,

2012 batch

<< back to blog

Programs

PGPM - One Year MBA for professionals with 2+ years work experience

Learn More >

PGDM - Two Year MBA for graduates with 0-2 years work experience

Learn More >

Events

Union Bank Finance Conference
Dec 17, 2020

Networking with Champions
Nov 08, 2020

Harry Kraemer on Performance with A Purpose
Oct 08, 2020
Read more

Successful Women in Management (SWIM) Lecture Series
July 05, 2020
Read more

The Great Circle Alumni Talk Series
July 04, 2020
Read more

  • About Us
  • Programs
  • Faculty & Research
  • Recruiters & Companies
  • Alumni
  • Blog
  • Contact Us