In most of our lives there are events both good or bad which takes places on a day to day basis. However there are some events which becomes so memorable that it becomes a major milestones in an individual’s life and I would say convocation is one of them. Attending 15th Convocation ceremony at IIMK I I realized that I should have been part of my graduating ceremony for my earlier engineering graduation and post graduation degrees
The importance of this ceremony can be understood if we look back at ancient India(Bharat) wherein “SAMAVARTANA” i.e. Graduation ceremony is also given a status of the one of the major samaskaras of the major Sixteen(16) samskaras like “GARBHADHAN”, “PUNSAVANA”, “MUNDANA” to “ANTYESHTI”(i.e. Death) . FYI Samavartana (literally, graduation) is the ceremony associated with the end of formal education of Vedas in ‘Gurukula’ or ‘Pāṭhaśāla’. This ceremony marks the end of studenthood. This also marks the end of Brahmacharyaasrama of life. Details of the same has been compiled by a Chinese traveller Xuanzang who has written about a convocation ceremony done by mighty king Harsha in year 643 AD where in he held a Buddhist convocation at Kannauj which was reputedly attended by 20 kings and thousands of pilgrims.
In our case this was the fifteenth (15th) convocation for students of IIMK for their FPM, PGP, EPGP students. There were no kings to attend our convocation but it was Minister Of HRD – Pallam Raju, Prof Megnad Desai – Professor Emeritus London School of Economics and AC Muthiah – Chairman of IIMK(Ex chairman of BCCI) and others were Board of Directors of IIMK. In place of pilgrims were the spouses, kids, parents and other family members of the students who were passing out.
All of us were present a day prior (22nd Mar 2013) to the ceremony day (i.e. 23rd Mar 2013) as instructed at 2:00 PM however actual rehearsal started at around 4:30 pm or so. It was bit chaotic on this day as names were being called out (which no one could hear) and students of both EPGP and PGP were called and asked to stand in a queue with roll numbers without any mike or proper thought process. This entire process took two (2) hrs and then we proceeded to the venue in the queue were asked to sit on the chairs in an orderly fashion. I am sure none of the management lessons learnt were applied on how to manage a crowd of 600 odd people standing in an hot and humid climate. But nonetheless people were busy chirping, chatting and talking to each other and congratulating them on completing the coursework. Rehearsal ended at around 8:00 PM and was followed by some snacks. Unfortunately snacks also finished and lot many people like went without it but surely considering the crowd and that all of them had travelled on the same day to the venue with some of them reaching directly to IIMK campus from airport/rail/road some more could have been planned. Anyways we proceeded to hotels booked by us and had a sumptuous dinner and then dozed off. BTW this time there was no arrangement of buses from hotels/airports/rail unlike earlier times. Next day we were all told to be there at venue at 4:00 PM
Next day most of us reached at IIMK campus by 3:30 PM in a formal attire with Plain shirt, Trousers and a Tie and started to take few snaps of ours with friends and at 4:30 PM we went ahead and collected our convocation dress from some classroom mentioned. FYI convocation dress is provided by IIMK through their external vendor and is supposed to be returned after the ritual. Few of the learning about the robe –
a) Robes for Faculty and students and Board members were of different color .
b) The FPM had violet robes with Red stripe while PGP and EPGP had black robe with red stripe.
c) The cap was supposed to be tied to the chin.
d) There is a Tassel which is attached to the square cap(like a “Chotee” of a cap) was supposed to be flowing to the right. Tassel on the left side indicates that the person has done his “Under Graduation” while Tassel on the right indicates “Post Graduation” as per the vendor. Not sure about FPM .. Does it mean Tassle facing sky … like an antennae … 🙂
Then at around 5:15 PM we were told to assemble at IIMK entrance for a group photo with the robes on. There were 514 students in all (2 -FPM, 326 – PGP, 186 – EPGP) and we were asked to stand on the steps with more than 60 people one row. My roll number came on 06th row behind some tall guy so you can imagine the situation. I made all my attempts to made myself clicked like by raising by ankles, going on a next higher step and going on behind a person where I can see things far off but all in vein J Then chief guests flew away the balloon signifying whatever (not aware of the significance) and then faculties and chief guest left the place. Then was the procession march with FPM and PGP students with robes going from Left and EPGP going from sight side of the entrance to IIMK to the venue. This time it was very much organized and seats were also labeled with our names on the back. That’s when we realized the importance of rehearsal so that confusion can be avoided upfront and it is made sure that people get the degrees with their name embossed on it. It started with Chairman pronouncing ceremony open. It started with FPM guys being called on stage followed by PGP and then followed by EPGP. After each category of student Chairman conferred a degree by stating so..e.g. – “I confer upon you the degree of Fellow Program in Management as an authority of Chairman of IIMK and then states that by thoughts, deeds and actions you (students) would try to protect the image for which the degree stands for” . This happened for PGP and EPGP folks too. There was a photographer clicking each of us while us taking degrees. We are told that institute would made available all the photographs online. As a protocol one has to bow in front of guests/chairman /director, person giving degrees and then to the faculties as well. Gold Medalists (Top 1/2/3) for PGP and Gold Medalist for EPGP were announced. Then there was a pledge with candle lit that we would use this degree to proper use. It was then followed by National Anthem.
Now was the time to return our robes, have dinner and then do a last minute meet-up with friends to say final good bye and click few photo graphs. All in all it was a memorable experience. I wish that we name this ceremony as a “SAMAVARTANA” samskaras than naming as “Convocation Ceremony” to make it more Indianized and I guess this is what IIMK motto stands for – “Globalizing Indian Thought”. Few Pics –
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