IIM Hell..
That is the moniker of this institute, as it rhymes with IIM L but thankfully it hasnt been living up to it. Though the train journey to the place nearly made up for it. It was one of the dirtiest trains I have ever travelled in , and believe me I have been around in trains quite a lot. If they had a frequent flyer ( railer :) ) scheme aka airlines, then I would have got a free ticket to the moon.For the record I made 32 trips between Pune and Cal in my 4 yrs at AIT Dist:2000km, Time:36hrs . Coming back to the Pushpak express i.e. the viman on which I descended to Lucknow, Kuber would have a shock of his life and would have sued for copyright infringement if he knew that the name of his invention was being abused in such a manner. The berths were filthy, toilets were 'yuck'. The co-passengers were a motley bunch consisting of a Sadhu without ticket, who was offered a seat by a Muslim guy (mill worker type) on the side berth. The whole journey they chatted shared food and became the best of pals. In addition to them there was a businessman and his two lackeys carrying excessive luggage all in one seat; making up the compliment was an army havildar's family with two raucous 10 yr olds, their parents and a shreiking old grandma trying to rein them in. To top it all the weather was oppressive.

Coming back to pleasant things. The campus is lovely with ample greenery, a maze of tree-lined footpaths. Nearly got lost last night when taking a stroll with my colleague Inder. From childhood I had this fascination of knowing all the roads and layout of the areas I stayed or visited, so IIM-L offers me a good challenge. Gradually I will map it all in my mind.