The year is 1992. The month is July. A fresh batch of kids walk into campus for the first time. The air is filled with dreams, hopes, expectations and... fear. The fear of the unknown, and the seniors didn't waste any time in psyching us up.

The first term soon began. The very first class we faced the legend that is Thiru. His electrifying presences put everyone's nerves on the edge, except Ritesh Gadhia. Here's one guy who was peacefully sleeping on the first day of Thiru's class. Some nerve. Section A soon settled down and was to witness class room battles which will remain in our minds forever. Ravi Pande and Debashish Poddar, soon realized that anything each other said was worth deeply looking into, and as a result we saw a ongoing war between TELCO and TISCO. Help. Not to be left behind, we had Bhanu, Unca, Madan in the fray.

Memories of another day reminds us of parties, parties and more parties. Good girls and good guys whose early education in life included the sermon that nice guys never drink. Those who drink ain't nice. Some value systems underwent a drastic change. Nice guys began to hit the bottle too. Gals began to look at drunks with an understanding that is still incomprehensible. Through the haze of smoke and vapor, we could see Samyukth (Call me Sam, guys) and Ramana Sonti going on and on beyond the capacity of ordinary mortals. In two years out here, we saw roughly about 35 parties. Every block began laying claim to having the most enjoyable party, but then every party is a celebration by itself. what made the parties good was that the guys were good enough to throw their hospitality open. Wish we could say the same about the gals.

A lot of guys learnt dancing for the first time. Call it trial or error or whatever. The finest dancer on the floor was undoubtedly Xavier. There were others too. When Sreekumar hit the floor for the first time in a bright red sweatshirt (or is it scarlet), there was awe and hushed silence all around. As Obelix would have put it more aptly, the skies had finally fallen on our heads. We had Mathew with his helicopter dance. In terms of sheer enthu, we had Shrote, Partha, Manish Jain, Balaji Vivek Prabhu, JKB (getting drunk without touching liquor) and... Debu. A bundle of energy, his romantic interludes with the loudspeakers, after a couple of pegs, will always be remembered. Among the girls, Amita, Madhuri and Shruti stood out for their grace on the dance floor.

By the end of the first term, we saw two potential forces emerging in the power structure of A section. Here's introducing our man Goindi. Soon CP began to be measured by a new unit "GOINDS". Cornflakes and Goindi soon became inseparable at 11 pm everyday. The other force was the eternal wisdom of Socrates (shruti). Er..... Excuse me sir, soon began to be heard in all classes except Indsoc.

The beginning of every term saw about 20 guys in the Gym hoping to look like Stallone. At the end of the first week, most of 'em would fade away. The guys who remained and began to look like sun soaked Adonis were Choco, Sarvanan, Rajanandam, Suvek Nambiar, Sanjay Dongre and Ramesh Diro. Then there were guys who made the rounds of the footer field. With Mathew leading the field and JKB not far behind breaking the record with 10 rounds (and giving it all up the next day for a quieter life). And of course we had a champion runner in Thadi.

Submissions, submissions and more submissions. Call it what you may, projects or term paper, its still a submission. At the end of two years most of us became adept at churning out long impressive (?) reports at the shortest of notices. The night outs before the D-Day (read that deadline date), music blearing out in the computer center and providing inspiration to all around during the Bus Pol workout. The MR submissions were probably the most taxing, with guys making a beeline for the computers from 5 am in the morning (we didnt have all night CC in the early days, y'see).

In front of our eyes, the landscape of the campus changed drastically, the muddly slush being replaced by the gorgeous expanse of the open air theater, the stones and mud pathways leading to the hostel being replaced by proper tar roads, the library being shifted to its new magnificent location, and the computer center being opened for 24 hours. The first party on the OAT will be an event that will be cherished forever.

Music nites, plays, quizzes, late night movies and the pubs on brigades. We saw em all. The music nites saw an explosion of talent on the stage. Dmoh and Mukul Nag blazed the arclights with their golden voices. The genius of Prasad Patil on the Tabla, Dicky on the drums, Kujur on the guitar, Avinash on the synthesizer and Shruti.... The plays were all in the first year, and the spontaneity of Amita convinces us the Broadway has lost a talented star. Speaking of Dicky, he provided a lot of music in our souls (though we are sure, someone else put music in his soul in the late spring of the second year).

Apart from music nites and the likes, we saw Nexus, the birth of the marketing club, finance club and now the kids are onto the corporate strategy club. Who can forget the first Nexus, and going out in the middle of the night to put up posters in the city, and getting intercepted by the cops in the process. Gambo's organizing abilities surfaced every time there was anything to organize.

There are other memories which will never fade away. The sheer vitality of Piyu, screeching and racing across the corridors, smashing the D-first lamp post with a flying mattress, reducing Mallu's room to a bomb hit area. There was Biju, who's exploits with the bikes and the broads is now a part of C block history. aman Bhasin, who never saw daybreak, Ronnie, oblivious of the effect he had on the opposite sex, Navneet Chak's Yankee accent, Arjun educating us with new unchartered swearwords, Aggro's tax fundaes, Sriram, the eternal gentleman, Golu's stint as the sports secy, US partha's foray with pillar post journalism, the Bwango movement and a magnificant sense of the absurd saw him getting laughs all around. J Partha's wonderful tales of kites and kiteflying, Arun Menon and the adventure club, Satya sharma's CP, the soft spoken subramaniam and the tough Nutalapati Ravi Kumar, the black eye of Ravi Shankar, Priteesh with a helmet on his luna, Salvi and his rare one liners, Hans chandra taking care of Salvi, Pseudo's late foray with the fairer sex, Rajshekar, Pitabas Mohanty and the silence of the lambs, Manish Joshi and Girish Kashyap's presentations. JKB's slick double breasted look, gelled hair, first dinner.....

...... Lahiri smashing the cricket ball all over the place, Johnny's spectacular goals, Navin jain introducing ghee rotis in the mess, madras lakshmi's explosive personality, Anindya's brilliant life saving notes and his go getter disposition, Amit Mittal's love story with food, Satish's manic obsession with cricket, Manish Jain's manic obsession with sleep. Madhur Jain's open heart, Bharat and his new Jeans, Asang's hand with colors, Debu's with the brush and the flute, Palani trying to smoke for the first time, Sridhar Iyer's voice which never made it to the stage, Ajay Bansal's intensity, Sujju's warmth, R Anand's alliance with destinty, Lax's quanti brains, Sachin working feverishly on the computer, Ravi Pande at the microphone and everywhere else, Shainy's marketing fundaes and warm and comforting shoulders. Anand Iyer's classic showdowns with the profs, Sophia and Cathy's serene look, Steve's Bon homie, Srimati's keen interest in G-Top, Milind Nandurkar freaking out on Hindi music, Siva taking tutorials, Sameer sunjeja's lighting smile. Amar's sheer dedication and sincerity, Sreekumar taking tutorials and building up a fan following of A block....

There was this sight of Suresh Karthikeyan coming to the night canteen in formals, Arnab Ray bolting out of Maam Bakhru's class, after realising he had come five minutes too early for the next class, Alok Bahl's debonair demeanor, Dips's penchant for Bahl-puri, Diwakar and his cigarettes, Mouse and his god daughter in A base, Srivatsan's giggles and a penchant for a certain bong, Sharad Jain's systems fundaes, Milind jadhav's regular visits to the TV room, Sudipto's notes, Divya's sweet and ever helping disposition, Yogeeta giving the thank you at the freshers welcome, Debashish poddar hogging cake at birthdays, Anindya trying futilely to prevent people hogging cake at birthdays, Raja doctor and Dizzy working their hearts out for Vikasna, The sheer hard work Arindam put in as a placement rep, Samyukth (call me Sam again) in pront of the PC for 40 hours at a stretch, Neeraj Gupta's talent at Tsepak and giving bumps on birthdays, Ganguly getting drunk, Sumit Das getting Drunker, Raghu's mimicry, Prabhakar's connection with doctors, Abhiram's A Block connections, Unca working till 5 am all alone in the computer center for the cause that is IIMpressions.

Among the cats, we had Sir Roleu and Manu Indranayan. C-Block Venky is smooth, G-Block Venky is smooth too. While we are on smoothness, lets talk about Chachu (anil). This is one guy on whom a timeless elegance rides on. And of course, there is good ol sunil too. There was this fabulous presentation by Mohan and Chandru on Eastern Europe.We had the underworld too. Ganesan came to town and let loose a reign of terror in C-Block. We hope at least someone was scared.

Daredevil Riders. we had our own share of them. Guys who lived life on the fast track and smashed all speed limits to prove it. Biju hit town in the first year with a 350 cc Yamaha, and it used to be a terrifying (and spirutual) experience just sitting behind. Unca, Madan, Samyukth, Prabhakar, Alok, etc. are the guys with the speed bug in them. Of course we had the casualities too. Samyukth crashed when he was ripping at seventy, and took it like a man. Men dont cry. Amit Mittal, Giri, Gopal, Biju, Madhur Jain, Mallu (and with him, sujju and laks), Gambo and Bhanu all took mighty spills and lived to tell the tale. If you dont mind the broken wings.

Yikes, how could we forget of romance. Quite a few guys were hit by the love bug. Vodka struck early outside the campus. Ravi Pande was perpetually in love with the wife waiting on the distant shores. And so was Osho, Gulati and Bagchi. There was this interesting sight of Bagchi spick and span for a change, when his wife turned up in town. The beginning of the second year saw Monica, Amita, Shruti and Madhuri with the familiar lost look by the telephone. Good bless good ol Graham bell's soul. A lot of IIMBites couldn't have done without you. Sanjoy Mohan's unbeatable combination of that hairstyle and Yo assigned him a place in history. then we had Mallu re'lax'ing in A block. Rajat being hit by the Vani-Vidi-Vici syndrome. Madan came to town convinced that only suckers fall in love. But then times change and suckers are born every minute. The other sights were Sujju's long night walks with a certain somebody, RamC in the fray, JKB.... the list goes long.  And of course, those who couldnt make it, PUTKAIED.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times (forgive me Dickens, thats your line not mine). we had happy moments, sad moments, glorious moments, delirious moments, you name it. but by and large, it was WOW. The palpable tension and Euphoria of placement, 131 guys fighting a battle for the future. In midst of it all we saw a unity among the class that was truly heartwarming. The care, the concern, shown by the class of '94 as well as the future class of '95, was something that will not be forgotten in a hurry. Some images of that week will always remain, guys with fingers crossed for their friends, waiting outside the interview rooms, willing and praying for others to make it. The perfect co-ordination and concern shown by the volunteers of the PIP-Is was terrific and very professional. Great show and thanks a million, gals and guys. We love you for it. Its nice to leave the place with two hundred odd new friends. Though one must say about our juniors, we were pretty surprised that the library could actually be inhabited during dances. Hoo brother, were we impressed.

As the music fades, and like we started, time slowly fades into memory, leaving behind an era that has gone by and will never come back again (forgive me Maam Mitchell, thats your line not mine). But, the pride of being an IIM-Bite will remain forever. Like they say, all good things come to an end. But then, good things might begin tomorrow too.