Centre of Excellence - A Gateway to Professionalism

"Things unfold when we get bold

Together we play, together we get old"

A hot summer afternoon and my flight lands in deccan plateau of India. The scratching noise of airplane wheels was enough to remind me that I was back down on Earth. Trying to manage keeping my feet on the ground somehow I managed to book a cab that would take me to a place I worship more than I respect now. Enjoying the beautiful rocky landscapes around the Nehru ring road of Hyderabad, the zooming vehicle finally stopped at the gate of  'The Centre of Excellence' of ICAI, my alma mater now.

Checking on the main gate didn't allow me to admit the fact that I was at COE. Instead I thought I was still at the airport. We were not allowed to carry Cold drinks(cola), any junk eatables something without which a human usually can't survive. Though the gatekeeper allowed biscuits, Snacks and juice but was strictly against the cold drink specifically. I wonder if he would have allowed a bottle of scotch.

Clicked on a beautiful clear morning.

The huge buildings in and around the campus with shinning blue glass reflecting sunlight appeared magnificent. I checked into a room of residential block which consists of 5 floors with 12 rooms on each. It was evening and new faces began to unfold. These smiling faces introducing each other were going to be the future of not only my 28 day journey, but would accompany me although the life.

Life at the institute is quite unique from that of a normal college. Late night chats resulting in late morning wake up and a rush to flush out the dinner we ate last night, gets the clock moving faster and faster with 3 star luxury rooms adding more comfort enough to stop us from getting down the bed.

Breakfast greetings with smiles seem more tastier than the south Indian food we get daily. We get bread jam and butter too but it is in no comparison to the daily south Indian food cooked by mess workers who wake up early morning to feed our empty tummies. 

The academic block of campus consists of four conference halls, all designed with classy interiors nothing less than a corporate scenario of which we were allotted one such hall for all our classes. Wearing shirts and pants sometimes accompanied by a blazer and  forgetting our denims for four weeks we used to enter our class at 9.30 AM in full professional mode. Class schedule was divided into four parts of 1.5 hour each with tea and lunch breaks in between.

The decent students on Day-1

A glimpse of the Academic Block

The faculty, who loved sharing wisdom were highly experienced and down to Earth personalities. Their experience was clearly reflected in their calm smile which further went on motivating us to become a better human than a better Chartered Accountant. From Psychologists to Businessmen, or Corporate Trainers to top public speakers, each one of them played a major role in transforming the lives of 41 enthusiastic students gathered from all over the country. They shared their life stories, their experiences, their expectations from us and above all, their lifetime support which never lets us fall down.

The sessions usually depending on topic of day and the faculty consists of small yet powerful presentation sessions, some team and trust building activities, indoor and outdoor, and then they have certain creative exercises to enhance our 'out of box' thinking skills. The faculty tests you at every stage and most of them are kind enough to give you a personal feedback. Stage fear which we had on day one was seen nowhere in any of us after three days, thanks to the faculty and always encouraging team members. We were fortunate enough to have team members who were not only selfless but continuously went on improving their friends until they overcame their weaknesses and mastered the new skills. I sincerely thank Lord to have given me this once in a lifetime opportunity.

We were asked to make Formal dressup with newspaper, and we ended up making Baahubalis

Pillars of Trust

Mega Structures using Spaghetti sticks -  The Art of Creativity class

On certain days we also have recording sessions of our presentation so that we can see our improvement in speaking skills. On other days our friends were kind enough to make videos of our presentation or even a simple role play so that we can keep a track of our improving speaking skills. Some faculties and their recording sessions carry so much weightage that they will transform your weakness into your strengths within two days. Yes!! There are certain teachers like that in Centre of Excellence. With each passing day we were split into different teams on a systematic basis which gave us a chance to interact with almost everyone in our class and know about each other just in a week. The motivational lectures when listened sitting with a great set of people are three fold effective and interesting. On one fine day we also had an oppurtunity to visit a peaceful and holy place dedicated to Swami Vivekananda where we were taught the art of Meditation.

A presentation session

Official recording sessions

Lunch Break is something every student on Earth awaits after long sessions especially when we don't sleep properly a night before. The ever tasty cuisines awaited us as much as we awaited them. The buffet had a lot of varieties covering the south and north Indian dishes making it a great buffet for great people. I must say that those 12 workers at mess are working really really hard to cater our empty tummies. Post lunch is what we call 'The Sleepy Hour' as it is natural to doze off even in presence of the best of faculties and that is why they focused on practical activities rather than lectures. But wait!!, what did we do post lunch and before class?

Paper fight is the name given to that game. Sometimes we danced to Punjabi and sometimes on Gujrati beats. Sometimes we did pranks, and on other days loud sensational music ruled our souls. God bless the guy who once played an old hindi classic song, whose tempo was slow enough to make our sleepy souls to almost enter coma. I still remember the way we bullied him. While all this happened, I loved practising chords on my mobile piano. But paper fight was what I would place in the top 10 moments of COE.

Classes usually got over by 5 PM and we call it 'The Beast Hour'. Dressed in casuals or any possible funky outfit, it was time to Bang the Table Tennis Table. The games lasted for few minutes, but the memories shall last forever. Campus also has a Gym and lucky was our 53rd batch to have a gym trainer among us. Tennis and badminton rackets were like precious jewels, for we waited in queues for our turn to play. Meanwhile evening snacks provided a quick refreshment to the sweating souls. We helped, we also yelled, but again in the end we helped each other learn all the games.This was also the time to get into depths of knowing each other and getting into random discussions which is yet another very important aspect of understanding human beings. 

It was the best time to adore beautiful landscapes of our campus. There were boulders, slopes, and quite good variety of flora. I must say this place is perfect for a nature lover and walking in the lawns of COE in dusk hour watching the flock of birds flying high above in sky was soothing for eyes, mind and soul. The rhythmetic sound of insects hiding in bushes adding a background music to views of cloud filled sky when the sun was setting. Sitting on a little boulder naturally placed under a tree awake the long sleeping poet in me and it was the same place where I began writing a poem for my batch mates. Post games was dinner time and again the 12 mess workers had done a brilliant job in filling tummies of 41 tired and sweating souls. Food tasted good as always.

The contemporary architecture

Cricket in Tennis Court??

One table ruled by 22 players. It was worth waiting for our turn

Lush Green Gardens surrounded the campus

Badminton players in the making

Post dinner is what we call 'The Devil'z Hour'. The next six hours upto 3AM were the most fantastic and lively hours of our lives and unforgettable for the security personnel who had to regularly come and raid the hostel to stop us and wonder on our insanity. Life is beautiful when lived with best people in best of climate under open sky when cool air massages your head. There were various rooms to experience 'The great Insane show'. Somewhere we could see a game of Teen Patti or Poker, while in one room an introvert busy watching movies sitting in a corner continuously sipping water from his sipper. There was a famous room where we held special ragging sessions which somehow later on turned to brainstorming sessions unknowingly. We had entrepreneurs working on their projects sometimes sitting on bed, sometimes on bathroom door and other days on any random staircase (they must be imagining they work for Google). Ahh!! We also had few Romeos with phone permanently attached to their biological ears. I am sure they walked the most as often we don't realize the distance and corridors we scale while talking over phone. At some places on some special days we had cat walk and dance performances. Life was getting better with each passing day. After all what can one expect from forty one wild students whom no homework has been assigned. One of the best moments were when we ordered the ice cream at 10 PM which of course was never allowed and for the next 40 minutes 40 students of COE had to sit on a strike to finally convince the Strict security guards to allow our jewels in. And after all this fun with each passing day , finally we were trying to push everyone to their beds sometimes at 3 and sometimes at 4 AM we called off the day. Yes! You are guessing it right, when dogs wake up, devils go to sleep. That's a natural cycle of human beings in 21st century. 

Birthday Celebrations

and now it's someone's turn to sit on 'The Hot Seat'

Post dinner discussions

At 7.30 AM ringed my Human alarm clock (my room partner) pushing me hard to wake me up and fortunate was I to get up in one instance with a funny loud war cry kicking off my little blanket. This was a skill we learnt from one of the faculties, that when you get up in morning, treat your bed as your enemy, give a kick in it's ass and then run to the washroom to save yours. There were four weeks and we had four class representatives elected among us and fortunately I was one of them in the last week to represent my class. All the four CR's did an awesome job in maintaining discipline. Yes! That includes me. And all the four CR's were treated as bad as an engineering dropout when we were called to fix the mike during a session. Holding our beloved CR responsible even if a spoon fell down from the plate was an awesome feeling until last week arrived and I had to bear the same. But let me tell you, these were the best of times I had wherein we had responsibilities. 
Our class CR also had a very strange responsibility, and that was to gather everyone to plan for a weekly off. Yes!!, we do get weekly off's and what we learnt in those times cannot be expressed, but only felt. In a matter of four weekly off's we explored every nook and corner of Hyderabad so much that by the end of course we started to get bored of the same old traffic roads. From Charminar bazaar to Horse racing club or any possible unique restaurant or fort, we had tried almost everything. By now we were now experienced enough to start our own travel agency, but then our parents would have come running to Hyderabad, Fathers wearing a boxing glove and mother's holding a Broomstick. So after the course got over, we considered it wise to return to our hometowns reflecting our completely transformed attitude to please our families. 
Yes!, the four weeks had got over just in an overnight we could not realise. We had just learnt to live and we were told to go back home and apply our newly learned wisdom into our daily lives. Hour after hour I could see a small group of students leaving the institute, each of them gifting me a silent tear in return to the hugs we made. In another 20 hours I and another four friends were the last group to leave the campus simply experiencing every kind of emotion and experience. Though we all had plans to meet outside the same day for a night out and have our last and best moments in city but leaving the prestigious institute was one of the greatest and bold experiences I had ever had in my life. The Goodbyes were more grand than a princess leaving her palace after marriage and to know how grand it was, you should definitely ask the first lot to leave the campus or see their cheeks and bums for any marks of our friendly punches. I know they shall remain their permanently.

The Goodbye Moments

Crying or Just Frying 😂

FEW Glimpses of life at COE-

The last Group Photo - Validictory Function

The ICAI

Tall Neighbour

Rooms at Residential Block

When we are granted permission to bring Chicken inside

Higher and Higher..

Professional Monks

The Grand Buffet
  

 Life is 'Awesome' and We live on 'Top of the World'

To apply for this batch, you can always visit the website of ICAI which is free to access but charges you 60,000 INR at a later stage of enrollment.