The stable called RETAIL- from the horse's mouth.

Hostel life gets to you. More than a year has passed, thousands of  minutes and counting and still no idea where all that time has been spent. Time spend running around completing that urgent assignment, searching for that elusive data, finishing that never-ending report, and going to sleep with each brain cell screaming for its due rest. And then waking up to loud ringing alarms scaring the daylights out of us. Waking up at 9.55 for a 10 AM class. Completing bare necessities while chasing slammed doors, strict professors, and improbable deadlines. A normal day in a retail students life. Our experience certificate for a lifetime of living up to the expectation of bosses, of sweating 8-10 hours a day on the shop floor. Our OJT, short for On Job Training has taught us that much.

Life has become an edited sequence, every unnecessary second trimmed, every unwanted action cut off, editing a Hollywood editor will be proud of. The life of an MBA in Retail student @ BIMTECH. Here’s a sneak peak.

8:30am: The alarm starts screaming. Loud for those lucky enough to be awake(a negligible minority), invisible to those resting those overworked brain cells.

9:00am: Waking up no longer a luxury, now an absolute necessity.

9:15am: Attending those morning necessities that even billionaires and CEO’s cannot do without. Difference is they get 3BHK luxury commodes while we fight for our turn on common bathrooms. Groggy eyed young men swearing at each other early in the morning is good practice for dealing with irate customers maybe.

9:45am: The big question, 15 minutes to class, do we pamper our empty stomachs or our honorable professors. A quick statistical analysis, taking into account the quality of the food, the importance of the class, the character of the individual, and the futility of the hard work results in the exact number of students arriving in class.

10:00am: The most important minute in a retailers life, the LAST MINUTE.

10:05am: The minutes after last. The difference between attendance, good marks, three hours of assignments, presentations, case studies and the occasional hidden nap, and a full relaxed breakfast and a few hours of serenity(ideally more sleep).

1:00pm: Lunch time, the brain so tired that 7 course, 7 star lunches would still be difficult to appreciate.

2:00pm: Back to class. The one’s there since morning envious of those who had their breakfast and rest and come to class, fresh and sprightly. Sacrifices the committed make and the pleasures of the undisciplined.

2:00 – 6:00pm: The eternal fight in the brain where a full stomach fights for sleep and a demanding professor fights for attention.

6:00pm: Class over, the shackles broken, shooting stars of freedom streaking across the dark sky of exhaustion.

And that’s not the end. It’s the beginning of another sojourn, the after class hours.

Time to make group presentations, complete the pending assignments, prepare for impending evaluations. And find those few precious moments to socialise, in person for the lucky few, on social networks for the vast majority. Somebody surely will think of a brain implant for 24hr facebook soon.

Post classes we feel the crunch, bundled up in a bunch. Hanging around the campus, when libraries give abode, sports fanatics to the courts and tables, the scatter and the chatter, and all the mental clutter in a platter! To do or not to do, to go or not to go, to study or to sleep, amidst the big assignments heap! 

As professor Viru Sahastrabuddhe once said wisely, “Life is a race, if you don’t compete, you’ll become a broken andaa!” 

Such is the mantra of corporate life in Retail. You need to be on your toes at all times! It’s a 24/7 job as they say and that’s what we chose to commit to. So, bring it on. Let the hunger games begin!!!