A night to remember…
Someone once said “The Secret to victory lies in the fact that the journey should be more exciting than the destination.” Our quest of IIMA- Confluence Master-plan is the perfect testimony to it. This was a moment (rather a set of moments) when three motivated souls discovered the underlying essence of the above statement.
The presentation was slated to happen to some of the industry stalwarts on the morning of 22nd November, 2008. Having submitted the report, Me, Saransh and Sidharth after a couple of days of extreme brain storming and research were sitting in my room at 11-30 PM of 20th November, 2008. The target was clear: A creative presentation. The ONLY thing which was unclear were the means…
Sidharth: Yaar, abhi sirf 6-8 hours bachhe hai, lets start it.
Me: Arrey start karne mein koi problem nahi, but abhi tak koi fundoo idea nahi aaya. We cannot win if we just give an ordinary presentation.
Saransh: Right, aur thodaa sochte hai..meanwhile, I will also look for a good layout and background (Not to say that, I have been trying this for the past couple of days)
Saransh: Arrey isme maza nahi aa rahaa, lets try the apple mac-book, it has brilliant power point capabilities.
Me: Sahi idea hai, santosh ke paas chalte hai.
Sidharth: Kya?? Abbey kaam karo apna.
Sidharth, though reluctant, finally accedes to the distinct conviction of ours.
And the “mandli” goes to Santosh’s room. After 20 odd minutes of trying to figure out how the software works, Saransh started looking confident. But mine and Sidharth’s face symbolised the inevitable. “Chuck this, we have a long journey, haven’t even taken the first step towards it and now you want to tread along an unknown path…!!”
Saransh tried to convince both of us but in vain and finally the mandli was back at F-303, the room which was still to witness some stupid acts and hear some more destructive ideas.
An hour wasted, the team was back to ground 0. The clock was slowly inching towards the deadline, but the team was still raring to take the all important and currently elusive first step.
After another hour of brainstorming, and with the aagman of Puneet Karhail, Saransh finally vented an idea which was soooo foolish that even the most insane of the beings in the universe would have challenged the futility of it.
Saransh: Abbey ek awesome idea hai (!). Appan logg campus mein se algae ikhhataa karte hai and usse oil nikaalke wahaa demo denge. Sab logg flat ho jaayenge.
Puneet: Arrey idea is good yaar. Mujhe pataa hai algae kahaa milegaa.
Me: (excited as usual) Looks brilliant. Try karte hai. Aggar ho gayaa toh hum jeet jaayenge.
Sidharth: Abbey kamino, raat ko ek bajje itni thandi mein hum algae dhoondenge… We haven’t started with the presentation. Apne faaltu brains ko bandh karo aur kaam pe lago.
Phir se, Sidharth ko pataaya, aur the team set sail towards another expedition.
Mission “Algae”.
Raat ko ek bajje, I went to the mess to fetch a glass and a spoon so that we can extract watever meagre deposits of algae were present in our lush green campus.
The team never thinks of small steps at a time. We straight set our eyes on the top of the mountain, Academic block which had a fountain. This was among the less trespassed places in IIM Indore.
Jaake dekhaa toh wahaa pe thodaa sa algae jaisaa kuchh toh thaa. Raat ko 2 bajje, on a cold winter night, Me and Saransh stepped in this colder water to extract whatever traces of algae were there in it. Duniyaa mein bahut kamm logo ne aisaa kaam kiyaa hogaa, kyunki hum jaise paagal itne aasani se nahi milenge. But it was just the flash of light, we were hunting for. This was the most promising source of that light, which if ignited would end all the darkness. This would vividly remain in the memories of all the witnesses of the incident for a very long time. Once again the testimony to the fact that, “we forget our great deeds but always remember our foolish acts.”
Ek glass bharke algae ikhaata kiyaa aur realised that the algae has some water in it. Oil nikaalne ke liye isko dry karnaa zaroori hai.
Iss baar naalayak sidharth ke banjjar dimaag mein ek gyaan kaa ankur phoota.
Apne campus ki koi ladki ko phone karte hai. She will have a hair dryer. We can use it. And then the (un)lucky girl had to be Saloni. At 2-30 in the night:
Me: Hi, I hope I am not disturbing you
Saloni: No yaar. (Raat ko 3 bajje phone kiyaa, time dekh aur dialogue maar!)
Me: I need a hair dryer from you
Saloni: What, at night 3! Kal le lenaa plz. Is it so urgent? (Pataa nahi thaa ki Me itnaa bewakoof hai)
Me: Its urgent. I will come at the gate of your hostel. Please give it to me. It will be of great help.
Saloni: Ok. See u in 5. (Lagtaa hai aaj kal raat ko phone off karke sonaa padega)
And bichaari Saloni, came after 5 minutes to hand over the dryer and went back.
Saransh, Sidharth and Me went back to my room, and started the experiments. Moved around to get a match box, dried some part of the algae strain and started the extraction process. (For your information, companies like Petrosun have deployed machineries worth millions of rupees for this extraction!)
After 30 minutes of futile efforts, and watching different coloured flames, we realised that every thing available in the room can burn except the algae we had extracted. So now, the clock had crossed, 3-30 and we were still firing bullets in the dark. Wisdom prevailed finally and the team gave up the idea of extraction. But sad and dejected by failure, we sat back to BRAINSTORM!
Our brain was too tired to think of anything and we dispersed at 4 in the night. Lectures at 9 tomorrow. We should sleep now, if we want to keep our eyes open in the lecture.
I tried but sleep evaded me, my brain was not ready to give in. I started searching for some videos on the internet. After half an hour of search, I found a video which contained the details I was looking for.
Satisfied, Finally, I managed to hit the sack. This was the culmination of an exciting, memorable, insane… etc etc. night. With just half a day to make the presentation, we were staring at a daunting task. But our experience at IIM Indore had taught us a golden rule “Anything in this world can be achieved in one night…”
