Som

It was 18 June 2005, the day when we all started our life at TAPMI. Everybody was so god damned decent! All were formally dressed in full-sleeved shirts and trousers or “salwaar kameez”. There was a bit of decent smile on every lip. So, that’s how we were lining up outside the PGP office to register ourselves and collect the PGP rulebook & the time-table of the THEME-I. Days went by…I mean ran by – mornings full of classes followed by a lunch followed by the afternoon grind. Slowly and steadily came those beautiful (or beauty fool!) assignments and presentations creeping into our lives. We slogged and within a fortnight, got dog-tired.

It was at this time that our senies pitched in, fresh from their summer internships. The first few days of the following week were spent giving our intros and hearing theirs. Then came a lot of gelling and group meets at the institute, the basketball court and CCD. Some non- group meets also started happening, some fires were lit and some smokes were seen rising from various locations namely the Ozone, Guzzler’s and not to forget nature’s very own- End Point. Well by the 42nd day in the calendar year of TAPMI came a big bang, the icebreaker “EPISODE”. Lots of interactions, lots of creativity. People here seemed to be drinking their lives to the lees.

The theme of life kept on changing gradually. Slogging increased by leaps and bounds. Came time for group work and so came the existence of ‘free- riders’ – a genuinely creative concept if you are an expert in it. Life rolled on amidst the surprise tests, quizzes and grades. Pressure started building up and we started learning how to bear the brunt. But, after all it was real fun and a good experience worth going through.

Seasons changed. It all stopped pouring and the bugle blew. We all packed our bags to answer the OUTBOUND cry. Come what may, but we have to keep going – through forests, caves, trenches, rivulets, ditches…….anything that you can possibly think of. We climbed mountains….I mean hills…. Reached our targets, read compass and got directed and re-directed and finally, reached backed the campus. ‘Never give up, never give in’ was the slogan we were taught to shout loud and amazingly it worked. Well there’s a lot more to this outbound thing and hope you all too enjoy that when you “Just Do It”.

At last came the mother of all themes, THEME-V. Lots of subjects, lots of quizzes and lots of surprises! We got a chance to scan the brands in BRANDSCAN and invited all b-schools to our TAPMI in our own ATHARVA. It was the QOTB (I mean…Quiz On The Beach) where Giri came in as the quizmaster and rocked the show.

Again it was back to square one – classes, quizzes, mid-themes and end-themes.
So what kept us moving through all these? May be parties, fun, learning and our gelling. Actually, that’s how we had spent our first year at TAPMI - by living life the TAPMI way.