To talk about this year and not tear up a little would be a lie of the highest order. To have prepared for this place in more ways than one, to have let go of certain things just to earn the privilege and pride that comes with being here, and to then navigate assignments, projects, and a thousand parallel activities on campus, and finally see it all come together, feels nothing short of surreal.
In all honesty, this is probably one of those weekly articles I wish I did not have to write. The words are there, almost within reach, but the mind hesitates, as if putting them down would make the ending a little too real. These red bricks have, over time, started to feel a little more like my own, a little more personal. What was once just a campus has quietly turned into a space filled with memories, routines, and people who made everyday life feel fuller. And the life within these red bricks is something you almost wish you could rewind and live through once more, knowing exactly what it meant.
In more ways than one, this piece marks the beginning of the end. I know I have poured a part of myself into reliving this PGPX journey through words, but as my time at IIM Ahmedabad draws to a close over the next seven days, there is an honest need to slow down, step back, and let these memories settle into their own quiet nostalgia.
As I begin to wind up this week’s blog, I find myself acknowledging something I had quietly been avoiding: PGPX, in its truest essence, has ended. Yes, I will still walk through these corridors until Convocation. I will still pass through the classrooms I once sat in, meet friends over chai, and quietly count down the days on the calendar. But the core of the experience, the chaos, the uncertainty, the relentless pressure, the shared storms, has passed. What remains now is closure. And gratitude. With that realisation, something else became clear to me.
This week’s delay was entirely intentional. I could easily blame an assignment, a project deadline, or the usual avalanche of urgent things that seem to define life here. But the honest answer is that none of them truly stood in the way. With only a handful of blogs left to write about PGPX, I did not want to rush this one out of habit. I wanted to sit with it. To relive the moments before documenting them. To let the memories settle instead of converting them immediately into paragraphs. Some weeks deserve analysis. This one deserved a deliberate pause.
To me, this piece of writing feels like the purest form of emotional release. The PGPX journey has been deeply transformational, not in the dramatic, cinematic sense, but in the quiet ways that truly matter. It has reshaped me from merely being an adult navigating responsibilities to becoming a more perceptive, more patient, and more respectful version of myself. This one year that challenged me, humbled me, stretched me, and, in doing so, changed me.
Week-44 here refers to the week of February 16, 2026 to February 22, 2026. This week, which ideally should have been dominated by conversations around the arrival of the next PGPX batch, was instead taken over, quite gloriously, by the surprise visit of my best friend to campus. While he spent a generous portion of his time roasting me and ensuring my self-esteem stayed appropriately grounded, his presence felt like a throwback to a decade of shared chaos, growth, and unwavering friendship.
Week-43 here refers to the week of February 09, 2026 to February 15, 2026. This week, despite being firmly within the walls of an academic institution, felt less about lectures and deadlines and more about nostalgia. Conversations drifted back to where it all began, to the nervous excitement of the first few days, to the friendships that were still forming, to the uncertainty that once felt overwhelming.
While I have genuinely tried to minimise the delay in my weekly blogs and special editions, this particular letter took longer than most to come to life. Ironically, it comes from one of the most defining phases of the entire programme, a term that carried not just academic rigor, but the immense emotional and professional weight of placements. Between preparing for interviews, second-guessing every answer, revisiting CV lines for the hundredth time, and living through the rollercoaster of hope, anxiety, and relief that placements bring, writing took a backseat. This term was all about ambitions meeting reality, expectations clashing with uncertainty, and every individual confronting their own fears in quiet corners of the campus. Some phases of the PGPX journey are too intense to write about in real time. They demand distance, reflection, and a little emotional recovery before they can be translated into words.
Week-42 here refers to the week of February 02, 2026 to February 08, 2026. As we inch closer to the end of the PGPX programme, the rhythm of campus life begins to change in subtle but unmistakable ways. The weeks now feel heavier with moments of togetherness and quiet reflection than with deadlines and deliverables. There are more shared meals, longer conversations, and unplanned pauses that turn into hours of reminiscing. Every window of time that is free of assignments or projects becomes an opportunity to sit with people who are feeling the same mix of gratitude, nostalgia, and looming goodbyes.
Week-41 here refers to the week of January 26, 2026 to February 01, 2026. Much like the previous week, this one too unfolded largely outside the realm of academics, an anomaly by IIM Ahmedabad standards, where coursework usually finds a way to dominate every waking hour. This rare shift in rhythm was both surprising and refreshing, offering a glimpse into a different side of campus life that often remains overshadowed by deadlines and deliverables.
Week-40 here refers to the week of January 19, 2026 to January 25, 2026. This week was shaped far more by what happened outside the classroom than within it. Although IIM Ahmedabad is known for its relentless academic rigor and rarely lets that intensity slip, this time felt like a deliberate departure from the norm. The usual pressure took a brief step back, making room for experiences that extended beyond classrooms and coursework. It was an unexpected shift, but a welcome one, offering a reminder that the IIM Ahmedabad journey is as much about the moments lived outside lectures as it is about those spent inside them.
Another week, another delay. But then again, this campus and the PGPX experience have a habit of sweeping you along before you realise where the time went. The weekend disappeared in the blink of an eye, and most of us found ourselves playing catch-up, even though the real game has always been about living the experience as it unfolds. So yes, another week and yet another promise to be on time. Unless, of course, IIM Ahmedabad decides to throw in a few more curveballs and surprises (which, at this point, feels almost guaranteed).
Week-38 here refers to the week of January 05, 2026 to January 11, 2026. The week kicked off in rather delightful fashion, with our classroom taking an unexpected (and very welcome) detour, from the iconic halls of IIM Ahmedabad to the majestic Shanti Sadan, nestled amid the timeless charm of old Ahmedabad. As part of our HITCH course (Hitchhiker’s Guide to Business and Economies Across Five Centuries; an undeniably cool name), our professor decided that this lecture deserved a setting just as special.
Week-37 here refers to the week of December 29, 2025 to January 04, 2026. The week unfolded as a vibrant mix of gratitude, celebration, and spirited competition. It easily stands out as one of the most action-packed weeks of the PGPX journey, with moments that demanded both emotional presence and physical energy. From the warmth and reflection of the batch dinner, to the institute ushering in the New Year with its own quiet (or rather, loud) charm, and finally to the adrenaline-fuelled inter-IIM sports competition, the campus was alive in every sense of the word. It was a week that reminded us that the MBA experience is not just built in classrooms and case discussions, but equally in shared celebrations, friendly rivalries, and moments that bring the entire campus together as one living, breathing community.
Week-36 here refers to the week of December 22, 2025 to December 28, 2025. The PGPX experience at IIM Ahmedabad has returned in full force, and everything feels comfortingly familiar: never-ending academics, an overload of projects, and the persistent tiredness that seems to follow every PGPX student, regardless of how packed or deceptively light their schedule may be. I distinctly remember telling a couple of friends that even though Term-05 had barely been underway for two weeks, it already felt like I was lagging behind by a full three weeks of deadlines. One way or another, the PGPX experience has a special talent for doing this to you: you constantly feel behind on your tasks, yet cannot quite remember which tasks those are. At this point, I am genuinely unsure whether it is the programme playing mind games with me, or if this is just what ageing feels like. Either way, the line between academic pressure and senior-citizen behaviour is getting dangerously blurry.
Disclaimer: Another delay, another excuse, so the tradition continues. But in my defence, the past week was so packed with events that I had to make a very real choice: live those moments as they unfolded, or rush back to my laptop to relive them through a Sunday blog. I chose the former, at the cost of my self-imposed deadline. Discipline will try to make a comeback, but with the PGPX journey inching toward its final three months, I make no promises. Instead, brace yourselves for more unexplained delays and increasingly long-winded reflections, equal parts nostalgia, gratitude, and the occasional cribbing, on the good, the bad, and everything in between.
Week-34 here refers to the week of December 08, 2025 to December 14, 2025. The week unfolded without the usual weight of projects or assignments hanging over our heads, as the batch officially broke away for what is, arguably, our final term break. The cohort scattered across the country in all directions: some choosing quiet reflection and introspection through the institute’s Shodh Yatra, some cocooned in blankets and comforters at home with bowls of gajar ka halwa (because yes, it is officially the season), and others staying back on campus, trying to absorb every last ounce of a place that has come to define us over the past year. One hundred and fifty-seven individuals. One hundred and fifty-seven emotions. All running parallel lives for the moment, yet inevitably converging toward the same destination: on a partly humid, emotionally charged evening in March 2026. By then, everything we worked for, everything we sacrificed, and everything we endured will be neatly folded into a single moment, sealed inside a beautiful folder embossed with the IIM Ahmedabad logo. A quiet but powerful signal to the world that we belong here; that we are, undeniably, part of this legacy, and perhaps, arguable or not, among some of the brightest minds this country has produced.
Week-33 here refers to the week of December 01, 2025 to December 07, 2025. As the P-Week anxieties gradually begin to subside, it seems like the PGPX cohort (or at least a major portion of it) has collectively forgotten how academics work. Almost everyone is struggling to remember what projects look like, how deadlines function, and most importantly, how one is even supposed to write an end-term examination. The muscle memory for studying appears to have vanished somewhere between interview prepping, CV polishing, and infinite mock HR drills. Monday officially marked the end of Term-04 for me, a milestone that brings me one step closer to becoming an MBA graduate, and a moment that quietly reminds me how far I have come since Day-01 on this campus. Despite the limited time I have on this campus, that one call from home never fails to pull me toward it, and suddenly the comfort returns in full swing, with Netflix and Jio Hotstar running in parallel, as if that is what life was always meant to look like.
This may be the first time I have skipped writing a weekly edition, but the silence was intentional and planned (at least to a large extent). The past two weeks were not separate chapters; they were one continuous wave of emotions, pressure, hope, fear, and everything in between. It only felt natural to narrate them together rather than forcefully split them apart. So, to anyone and everyone who wondered how I could possibly miss Week-31, read on. Let these words carry the weight, the chaos, and the quiet that defined the last two weeks on campus.
