By Aishwarya (BMS’27)

It’s intriguing to watch everyone go on a quest to fit themselves under a label desperately. Yet I’d be a hypocrite to say I’m not one of the headless chickens fighting my way up the rungs of the ladder.

I still remember my first day of the first semester. Walking into class, finding a seat, and chatting up the first person I saw. Can’t remember the name or the face, but words are something I distinctly remember.

“Hi,” I said. “I’m Aishwarya. Cool shoes. You a shoe guy?”
“Not really,” said Guy. “Just got these after the CUET.”
“Ah, alright. So, what do you do for fun?”
“Not a lot. Been caught up with CUET preparations. You know how it is.”
“Makes sense.”
“I got a 760, by the way.”

Half an hour in, and I got the gist of the atmosphere in my class. The topic of the decade at school would be board examinations. Here, it happened to be the entrance exam. The first few lectures had droned by, and while I can’t recall much of the class, I remember the blokes behind me chatting up a storm, getting to know each other, rowdying around, checking out a few chicks on Instagram, and then moving on to discuss their CUET breakdown and DU acceptances. Quite the whiplash, huh?

For a while, that seemed to be the thing that got people barking. However, then came the societies. Personally, societies are the reason why I joined this college. I admired the strong, autonomous student-built institutions and had heard a lot about their contributions to SSCBS being the number one business undergraduate college in the country. After conversing with a few alumni, I had decided that the college was worth a shot. However, what I hadn’t taken into account was how intense the culture would be.

Society open houses had newbies by their throats. I still remember what an absolute stampede they would cause. Kids bolting from hall to hall, slipping into other classrooms to attend these sessions, some trembling with anxiety while others with excitement. When the recruitment season began, every first-year treated each interview as their ticket into McKinsey itself, as though every interaction held the key to the Big Three.

Just like that, CUET was old news. The masses were starving for the new thing, and lo and behold, the societies presented themselves as our very own FoodCorp.

It was almost amusing to watch the entire ordeal unfold.

Soon enough, the societies (or “socs,” as it has been unanimously shorthanded) began declaring their results, and every first-year held their breath, waiting to see if their name was pulled from the Goblet of Fire. I know I seem hyperbolic with the statement, but it was kind of a big deal. Probably because this was the closest we’d have to company recruitments. Some kids got into their dream socs, some didn’t. Some took it like a champ, some had their sagas of heartbreak. Pretty normal stuff.

The interesting bit started a few weeks after these recruitments. The first-years had settled into their societies, and people were no longer bolting out of classrooms like a fire had been lit under their chairs to attend interviews. However, the climate had shifted. New clouds in the sky, new throne in the clouds.

I remember making small talk with a girl in the bathroom, as you do when you’re both washing your hands by the sink and haven’t said anything in a really long time.

“So,” I started. “How’s it been going?”
“Exhaustingly,” replied Girl. “Not really sure what’s going on anymore, but it’s all been so exhausting because of societies, you know?”
“Oh girl, I feel you. The recruitments were something, huh?”
“They really were! I remember my interview for…”

Aaand… scene. Pretty good conversation starter, these societies. As a certified talkerholic, they surely came in handy. Like meeting someone in an elevator:

“Oh hey! We were in the same group discussion for [redacted society], right?” “Oh, you’re right! It’s so nice to run into you!”

Or sitting next to someone in the library: “Hey, could I borrow your charger for a sec?” “Yeah, sure. Wait, you’re from [redacted society], right?”

Or… well. Hmm.

As fun of a conversation starter as they were, they started becoming the conversation. That’s when I started noticing the new phenomenon. How kids would go about treating societies, some treating it as a part of their life, while others treating it as their whole life. How societies became the new thing for the newbies of SSCBS.

For some, societies act as avenues of exploration, self-expression, opportunities, and growth. I respect that. Some see them as shiny badges on their LinkedIn. Quantitative, but I respect that. Then there are some who eat-breathe-preach these societies. They terrify me. Do not mistake my terror for disdain. If anything, it is borderline fascination. Human behavior never fails to engage me.

It isn’t prevalent at first glance. However, if you pay attention to the college grapevine, some have formed an almost hierarchy, determining their social standing on the basis of their socs. This isn’t pervasive, yet it is there. Very similar to how these very kids would herald their CUET marks, ranks, or whatever it was.

On the other end of the ring are those who oppose the “soc-hivemind” culture altogether, critiquing the bells and whistles woven around these student institutions. Either because they believe there is more to life than some glorified college club, or because they’re salty they couldn’t make it into the big leagues.

Would you look at that? Our very own left and right. Who gets KO?

The new thing came with its very own best friend, case competitions, or case comps for short. Thousands of competitions hosted by IITs, IIMs, and DUs that promise to turn every participant into a nationalist. Once again, the crowd splits into two, some doing these case competitions because the topic genuinely interests them, some doing it for the sole purpose of accolades for their resume. Most of them doing it because they don’t want to miss out on the rat race, and their friends following suit because they don’t want to miss out either. The CBS ouroboros.

Pretty soon, my conversations started to look like this:

“You studied for that test yet?”
“Nah man, haven’t got time. Got a society meeting today.”
“Ah.”
“Then there’s the case comp. I’ve got a five-slider due tonight and another deck by Friday.”
“Mhm.”
“And there’s the client meeting tonight too! Man, they’re making us work on this bullshit deliverable. Like, why do I need to reach out to your suppliers for you? I’d be fine with making a PPT, but all this grunt work…”

Words are something I distinctly remember, but I can’t remember much after that. Can’t really remember which end of the conversation I was at either.

Now, what do I think of it all? Where do I stand?

Well, I could rant about how our college’s need to desperately fall under a society bubble is representative of society’s long-drawn struggle with finding labels. How students’ marathon for case competition accolades simply reflects society’s unanimous thirst for gratification. How we’re all caught in the corporate trap of constantly needing to climb higher, treating experiences materialistically, judging individuals by their LinkedIn followers or socs, despite life being more than just resume building and PORs and internships. Bullshit.

This is a business school. What else was I to expect? If anything, I take pleasure in the cutthroat environment. Of course, I scoff at anyone who’d go around wagging their accolades as though it is tailored to be their entire personality. I’d also scoff at anyone who deems these accolades insignificant.

I suppose I waltz around in the middle. Whether as perfectly balanced scales or as a fence-sitter, I leave that up to you to decide.

Sometimes, it’s not that deep. Sometimes, a conversation is just a conversation.