The setting wasn’t exotic Goa or one of the top ten tourist getaways in India (according to the Cosmopolitan). But, we, the hitherto ignored Higher Ed team, had our very own NSM at Varanasi in May this year. There were a lot of firsts in our NSM. The development editors presented their major titles to the sales team; some of them running from one conference room to another as they were supposed to simultaneously present B&E and ESM titles (Business & Economics and Engineering, Science, and Maths, for the uninitiated). They could have given pointers to the 100 metres sprint contestants at the Olympics. Amar astounded everyone with his dancing skills and caused some minor upheavals on the dance floor while Nagaraja, on behalf of the Chennai team, laid territorial claim to the dance floor and refused to relinquish his rights to anyone. Ashish (PTG Chandigarh) managed to successfully miss the train to Delhi while leaving for the NSM, and then to keep up the good work, he got left behind in the Sarnath museum. He let us all down, however, by catching the return train to Chandigarh. The women in Marketing and Promotions raided the city shops and the prize for most-Saris-bought went to Babita (or was it Anjali?). Madhur clicked embarrassing photographs of everyone, some asleep, some half-awake and some completely zoned out, and Vivek used them to add punch to his presentation. The meat eaters had a field day as there was bacon, ham, and two kinds of sausages for breakfast everyday apart from the normal fare of scrambled eggs, pancakes and syrup, idlis, puris and so on. There were unofficial beer (and other spirits) guzzling competitions every night. But it was difficult to figure out who won; the competitors were usually past caring.
Hope I have done a little towards keeping the Higher Ed flag flying. By the way, great posts from both Soumitri and Gitesh.
Anindita Pandey
0 comments:
Post a Comment