“You would lose marks for today’s lab if you leave right now”, the teacher said with a firmness in his voice. “It’s Ok Sir.” I walked out of the lab with 1 ½ hours of the 3 hour lab still remaining. It was 11.30 am. A long day beckoned, and it was imperative for me to take rest for sometime atleast. I had slept at 4.30 am the night before and at 4.00 am the night before that. It had started to take a toll. But today was not the day to lose steam. There was a marketing project presentation at 2.00 pm in the afternoon. And yes, there was the Student General Secretary Election at 6.00 pm.
To be very honest, I had never wanted to be the General Secretary. A General Secretary, after all, has the responsibility of coordinating all student activities in the college – be it alumni relations, public relations, international relations, the student clubs , the induction program of new batch and what not. It demands a proactive person at the helm, and I had doubts about myself initially. After all, the frenetic pace of the B-school life had made me retreat into my shell. However, I had seen room for improvement for the college. The best way to demand change was to be in a position to facilitate change. And the best way to achieve this change was to take the plunge myself. Thus, I had ended up filing my nomination.
I had stayed up on previous nights because I wanted to get my agenda spot on. I had not been the most social person in the batch- not ideal when you are up for an election. Unfortunately, I could not help it in the next 2-3 days. The best I could have done was to come up with a solid agenda for the next year which could make people sit up and take notice. Whether that would eventually convert into votes was an entirely different matter, but I had to try. So I went about brainstorming- thinking, talking to people, taking views. It took a lot of effort to come up with a presentation.
Eventually, it was time. The clock had struck 6.00 pm and the batch of 79 had taken its seat. There were 7 candidates in the fray, that’s nearly 10% of the batch! I had appeared sleepy during the marketing presentation in the afternoon. A friend of mine had given me a dressing down – “If this is your energy level going into the pitch this evening, you better forget about people listening to you”. My measured approach to everything makes me a fluent but mundane speaker. I had to find a way to throw in some zeal but I had no idea how to do it.
Read Final Part HERE