2*06 – The one with all the Thumping

Guess where did the name come, well after lot of pushing, I started watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S so the inspiration came from that. But wait the entire story is not about that so those of you who are not really a big FAN of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, can also read on.

I was sitting in my “the very last” lecture at iimk and project presentations were going on, one after the other. Usually these sessions are difficult to sit in, I mean project presentations! People are least interested in the project that their own group did, forget listening to ppt of other groups. So what do you, some people sleep like they don’t care, some people keep on moving in and out of the class and try not to care, some people respect the sanctity of the classroom and sit patiently there, a few try to listen to what is being said by the presenters just because they anyway had to remain in the classroom and have nothing else that can do in a classroom, but everyone is looking at the clock, with every tick of the second you are marginally happy and the diminishing rate of return does not apply here, it’s a increasing rate of utility curve where the utility continue to increase, the more closer you are to the end of the session the higher is the utility of that last of the seconds. Well not anymore!

I wished for the first time in my last ever lecture at iimk that may be the last group had a few more words to say to the class before they say “thank you”, may be some of my ‘kind’ friends who were listening to the presentation had 1-2 questions to ask, may be the professor had something to say to the class before he winds up the session, may be everyone in the class was feeling like I do and may be something was happening for the first time ever that did not happen before, each of us in the class wanted that lecture to go on for a few more seconds, may be minutes and each of us for the first time did not mind if the class overshoots by a couple of minutes. As when the last presentation finished, my eyes did not believed what they saw, my ears wanted to ignore what they were hearing, my mind was trying hard not to waste time in thinking about what is happening, and my heart was beating slowly as if it was saying something to the clock, my goose pimples were trying to hide from being noticed - they did not wanted to appear. I wanted the time to stop, I wanted to be a poet, I wanted to be a photographer, I wanted to be a writer, I wanted to be an artist, because these MBA programs can teach you how to run a 100 crore business but they fail to teach you how to capture moments that matter.

While I was feeling all that, suddenly a cold current ran through my nerves, the heart beat that was going slow jerked up, the mind was puzzled, the two ears were confirming with each other if what they heard was right, the goose pimples couldn't wait any longer...engulfing --almost uplifting-- my body with a feeling that can only be experienced, not described, my whole 2 years flashed in front of my eyes as the last group said “thank you”. That was a dead silence in the classroom, everyone was trying not to look at others, they were looking at the ceiling, the fan, the projector, the board, and then they started thumping the desk. The thumping that did not stop, probably no one wanted this thumping to stop, the thumping was the last hope of each one of us to continue sitting in the class somehow and not leave, the thumping was the only common way out for the emotions that each one of us had, the thumping was the only way to cheer up all those who were feeling bad about the end of the PGP program, the thumping that never looked like it would stop. I did not care if the table break but I desperately did not wanted that thumping to stop.