Shillong Stories II -- ZZZ, the core competency

The train was to arrive around 6 am and the horde of XLers was gathering on the platform at Sealdah station. Most of us had converged from Howrah but a few were camped in Calcutta and were to join us here.

The opportunity was ripe for the more thoughtful and prudent ones to begin their morning brushing and face wash and soon the platform water sinks were captured by a throng of XLers buzzing around the bank of sinks like a bunch of thirsty bees crowding around dripping water taps in summer. And boy we stung each other when the right to a tap was attacked! Manners are strange feelings. They need a cue, a reinforcement. Being mannered sometimes needs a leader who can remind that they need to be kept even when adversity strikes. And well, like in all other things that are influence driven, there are the early adapters, the late adapters and the laggards, all true to their species and never showing disloyalty to their breed.

The compartment was duly captured; the couple of outsiders reasoned with and then bullied into exchanging their seats and the picture was complete. There were 24 hours to be spent and there were 27 people to be entertained. If the core competency of a babu lies in knowing who’s ego is to be massaged, if the core competency of a politician lies in knowing which promise to make, if the core competency of an investor lies in knowing which business to invest in, the core competency of an MBA lies in being able to adjust his sleep as the occasion demands. Ranging from the busy volatile periods punctuated by suitably scattered cat naps (some like to call it the power nap), to the half-charger 4 hours during super charged project nights, to the full of ennui, lazy day, timed-to-brunch-perfection 12 hour marathons, we can do it all.

And so when the train compartment severely limited our existence in an uncomfortable quantum of space spread over a long and equally uncomfortable quantum of time, we hit the sack like a weary ancient army breaking into a field of sleep inducing Mandragora. 5 hours passed and were perhaps recorded only in the fuzzy memories of a couple of us who had some malfunction in their brain’s sleeping centers or in their MBA training; either one of these two. And then, as the day stepped into adulthood, the junta awoke to pangs of sweet hunger on a train rocking and speeding towards the most scenic states of India: the seven sisters. It was brunch time folks!

There was dire need to generate some serious fun and it did not need effort. What do you expect from a bunch of b-school junta freshly liberated from end-term rigmarole? There were cameras and no dearth of pretty faces and funny faces and sleepy faces and jumping faces to be clicked. There were balls and no dearth of eager players. There were even the 10 rupee magic trick kits and still no dearth of buyers and performers and watchers. Kedia morphed into the magician and used his magic kit to the utter amusement of one and all. Madhurita became a dolphin to her trainer Prithvi and her headers of the tennis ball were a sight to see. And in the evening, Apex, Gauri, Ghalke and I became singers and soon the spirit spread to all in the group. It was all there, in 10 the feet by 4 of wood and iron.

And then as the day wearied itself down to a beautiful evening, the moonlit mountain terrain sprang up from the darkening shadows and took our hearts away! Love was in the air and many became victims on the very first night. Till late night, the travelers in the S10 coach heard jocund singing spilling out from the compartment and the light from the windows of the train bounced and traced the terrain beside the railway, stretching long and deep into the lap of the beautiful and calm night.