Still figuring it out: Some days you show up, some days you grow

I was scrolling through my gallery the other day, and it genuinely made me pause for a second somewhere between random screenshots, too many blurry campus pictures, sunsets by the lake and videos I do not even remember taking. It hit me that four months had quietly turned into a whole story!

The pace here does not really give you time to sit with things while they are happening. There is always another class, another submission and another group discussion that was supposed to take a few minutes but somehow stretches late into the night while we quietly convince ourselves that everything will work out. Between visits to the Shiv temple in the middle of campus over the smallest inconveniences and getting distracted every time a peacock appears on the way to class, life here has a way of moving quickly. Yet every once in a while there comes a moment when you pause and realise just how much has happened in such a short time.

Walking into SPJIMR as someone who has always been more comfortable listening than speaking up in a room, the mic was never something I naturally gravitated towards. Between PG Lab sessions, presentations and random classroom discussions, the hesitation that once felt huge slowly began to fade.

One of my favourite campus stories has to be the myth that spotting the snake near the lake brings good luck (:P). Every lake walk turned into casually looking around, hoping today might finally be the day we spot it again. Honestly, I do not think the excitement was ever really about the snake itself. It was about having something completely random and silly that everyone collectively believed in. And the lake somehow became important in ways I did not expect. Whenever things started feeling too low or overwhelming, walking there slowed everything down for a bit. It felt like one of the few places where the week stopped rushing ahead of you.

Twenty-four years in Mumbai, and the beach was always just there, yet I was never really a beach person. Somehow, that changed here. Random sunset plans turned into late-night drives and early morning walks simply because someone said, “let’s go,” and suddenly everyone was ready, and before you knew it, an ordinary evening had somehow become one of those memories everyone would keep talking about later. Looking back, I do not think it was ever really about where we were going; it was more about the people, the conversations and all the little moments in between that slowly became attached to those plans and made them memorable.

Recently, during the cricket tournament, we lost our match, and somehow that still ended up becoming one of my favourite memories from these past few months because the evening after turned into everyone going out together, laughing, celebrating anyway and just enjoying being there together as a division.

One of the more unexpected experiences was being part of the Brut India session with Pratika Rawal right here on campus. I was part of a live shoot for the first time ever. The energy in the room felt so different from a regular classroom setting, cameras everywhere and conversations happening in real time, while the whole thing still somehow felt natural. It was one of those moments that made you realise how many unexpected experiences SPJIMR quietly introduces you to in the middle of everyday life.

Along the way, this place just stopped feeling new. The people who felt unfamiliar on day one gradually became the same people I now call family and end up having the most unnecessary yet memorable conversations with. Whether it was a beach plan that came together at the last minute, prom night spent squeezing into photo booth frames and taking far too many pictures together, or simply sitting around talking for hours, the memories that stay with you are often the ones you never planned for. Here, even the chaos starts to feel normal after a point, and I think that is the strange part of this whole experience. The moments you never really think twice about while living them become the ones you end up remembering the most.

Still figuring it out, probably feels like the most honest way to describe this journey right now. Some days feel exciting and full of momentum; some really feel messy and uncertain. Yet somewhere between the chaos, the people, walks by the lakeside, the late-night conversations, and all the moments that were never really planned, this place slowly starts becoming a part of you before you even realise it!!