How friendship at IIM Bodh Gaya survived during the pandemic

The batch of 2022 at IIM Bodh Gaya resembled all the other colleges in the world who are currently studying online due to the ongoing pandemic. Our classes on GMeet had made us familiar with a few faces. There were ones who were always on the front screen, ones with regular net issues, a few who said solving maths questions acted as a stressbuster for them, amidst others. 

But something lacked. Contrary to the friends that we would’ve made if we were physically on campus, there was a certain hesitation when it came to getting to know someone online. ‘How to make friends online’ was the biggest question for us freshers, and this is a story where I’ll tell you how my boat of friendship sailed during the pandemic.

Even before formally joining the college, various “pre-joining assignments” were given to us. One of them was by Unnayan - The Music & Drama Club. We had to make a Short Film on our own. By this point, we were well acquainted with the process - check the mail, create a WhatsApp group, send the link to the teammates, get on a meet, discuss the ideas, do the project, and get on with our lives. This was the typical online college routine!

This was how the cycle started. From “let’s meet at 8 AM with some ideas” to “can you make it 10?” and “we need to think something unique this time” to “we finally did it”, we somehow learnt to sail through. In fact, we even came up with a quirky name of our group - “Who’s got the popcorn”. Amidst all this, we made a lot of memories -  memories that would matter, memories that we would cherish. 

We went from discussing our short film, assignments, classes, syllabus to discussing our favourite food, habits, political views, and what not. There was even a time when we played a game, where everyone had to identify the person by their childhood photos. Ah! Such fun. These moments make us realize that maybe online studies aren’t very monotonous and there is an unexplored territory that is full of fun.

Like every other generic article, it is mandatory to mention once that humankind has never seen a pandemic like this one - the same goes for education without saying. Never could I ever imagine that I would be interacting, gossiping, laughing at the same jokes hundreds of times, and developing a bond even in an online setting. GMeet and Zoom mean a lot more to us now than a mere daily routine. In this mundane online class routine, where there’s some new deadline to complete an assignment every hour, my popcorn gang comes as a respite.

Now, only time can tell us when we all will meet in person, but it is for sure that whenever that day comes, there will be a blast. There is a feeling of comfort when we will think of leaving our homes for college. In case you made it till the end, I hope this reminded you of your online college experience and the many bonds of friendship you've created online, during the pandemic. I hope this made you smile!