Jeanie & Himanshu (PGP 2015)

Jeanie Chandra & Himanshu Kumar (PGP 2015)

March 11, 2013, it was our IIMA PGP interview in Gurgaon. The venue was swarming with candidates suited smartly, waiting to prove their mettle for the hallowed portals of IIM Ahmedabad. As I quickly glanced through everyone looking for an empty chair, my gaze stumbled upon a young girl. Clutching her document folder wearing a smart blazer and a skirt, it looked like she was reciting some maths formulas. Her eyes were glittery, confident and focused.
With that first small chat, Jeanie already took my breath away. We both wished each other luck for the process ahead and parted ways unaware of the beautiful plans that destiny had in store for us. We both landed at IIMA and our journey began in the month of June 2013.
IIMA first year was indeed an experience. For first one month, we both were lost in our own worlds trying to stabilise the forces more powerful than any of us.
One fine day, we bumped into each other in library for group studies on Microeconomics. We started spending more and more time together for almost everything ranging from PS to Finance. First two terms went by and I was already in love. Excel spreadsheets got replaced by her beautiful smile where I felt myself lost, unable to recover.
Summer internship process was the time when my impatience grew beyond limits. November 2013, under the beautiful skies near the Stanford ramp, I confessed my love to her, to which she said no and suggested that I should focus on my career. I was shattered and next few days were unbearable, waking up and living a normal day suddenly became pointless.
In an effort to live a normal life, I ended up behaving weird. Spending more and more time alone, I started avoiding her. Months went by, the hour-long conversations faded and turned into a casual hi. In the summers of 2014, we got busy in our respective internships and almost lost contact. A part of me just died while going through all this transition.
PGP2 began in June 2014 and it was fresh as daisies. I was more mature and learnt that Life is too short to overthink on anything. I decided to reconcile with my broken heart again and mend the relationship.
We were friends again! Fourth term at IIMA was a fresh chapter of the book that we wrote together. We did a lot of projects together at the campus, participated in a lot of events. Slogging through the hours, working on the spreadsheets, building business models and winning multiple rounds, it all boiled down to whether it could bring a smile on her face.
It was November 2015, when I again proposed to her but this time let a coded spreadsheet do the talking. She didn’t say yes but she didn’t say no either. Love was in the air, Love was everywhere. For us, entire campus seemed to have fallen in love. It was the most beautiful month of our lives. It was the time, we realised that we are just meant for each other and that there is no larger truth than this.
What happened next was more like a Bollywood flick. We introduced ourselves to each other’s parents at Convocation. Hailing from the same state, we had similar cultures and parents could not say no. We got engaged in the month of April 2016 and got married in 2017. For all the wonderful time it represents and as we keep saying to each other ‘Remember..Remember..that beautiful November’…