As the car sped along the road, you hear your mother exclaim and point something out. You are texting a friend and it takes you some time to realise that your mother was talking to you. You look up and see three bold blue letters, X-U-B.
That, that is the first glimpse you have of the place you'd be living in for two years.
As the car enters the massive gate, you feel the butterflies in your stomach flying about with extra vigor. Leaving your parents in the mess, you enter the conference hall for the registration process, a little nervous, a little apprehensive. Familiar faces (thanks to WhatsApp and Facebook groups) greet you with grins and waves and suddenly you feel a little of the apprehension melting away. You know these people and they know you.
After the registration is over, you drag your luggage up seven flights of stairs (because since the Fortune Gods have smiled on you, the elevator decides not to function that day. Or the next.), you finally reach your room. The view which greets you is breath-taking and you decide that you might just start liking this place. Two days of mattress flipping, stacking clothes and searching for wifi connectivity (and a quick trip to Puri, because, you know, Puri) later, you finally settle down.
What follows is a week of back to back orientation activities, organised both by the faculty and by your seniors. You form various groups, perform skits, make chariots out of colorful blocks and use scavenger hunt items to describe life at XIMB. You interact with your seniors, a little fearfully, but once the ice breaking session is done, you go and chug down a little Thumbs Up with them. Remember, it is an alcohol free campus.
After a few episodes of food poisoning, mess food (disclaimer: any link found between the mess food and food poisoning is purely fictional) and Pizza Hut offers, you adjust your biological clock to take in late dinners, no breakfasts, not so fun midnight batch meets (you'll be debarred if you're late, you know!) and very much fun midnight X-walks.
As the classes begin, you think damn it, now I'll have to fall into the monotonous life of alternating between going to class and finding time to get some sleep.
But bam!
In what can be described as a very very highly charged up atmosphere, you get introduced to the core committees of XIMB. You give an interview, perform tasks and lo and behold! You are part of the International Relations Committee! ¡¿Incredible, no?!
And now, as you sit writing an article for your committee, surrounded by friends and laughter, you look back and wonder where the first day's apprehension had come from.
Because you’re in XIMB.
You are home.
By: Cinibali Banerjee and Archana Patnaik
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