The start of amazing B-school life !

29^th July 2013 marked a new beginning of my innings. It was the first day at B-school and undoubtedly will remain the most memorable day of my B-school life.

1^ST DAY AT B-SCHOOL

The seniors welcomed us by applying a ‘tikka’ on our forehead. There were some who were reluctant to have that ‘tikka’ but the seniors made sure that every junior obeyed their orders. They were very strict, for reasons which remained unexplained throughout the day. After the tikka and flower ceremony, we were asked to submit the assignments which the college had mailed us.

The assignment was – 2 case studies, 1 balance sheet to be analyzed and analysis of articles from Economic Times (22nd-27th July) though everybody had a rough idea that assignment thing was a prank, almost all of them completed the assignment. It also included a video resume to be prepared by us. We received the mail for the same on 23rd July 2013. After the assignment submission, we headed to the 6th floor. Again we were greeted by harsh words of seniors for not wearing formal shoes and so on. Some of the juniors got into an argument with them but to no avail.

Finally the programme started after an hour of well-planned pranks played by the seniors were over. The highlight of the day was the man, who spoke on ‘Mind Power’. He was a qualified person and had many degrees to his name in the related field. All the faculty members of the college were seated on the stage. Formal introduction of the college, teachers etc. was done.

Now it was time for us to enjoy the sumptuous lunch that our institute so lovingly had arranged for us. We were told that we will be having our lectures from 3-6pm.Getting divided into 4 divisions, we entered our respective classes. I had an Economics lecture. In my class, came the sir to teach. He wanted us to introduce ourselves. When I introduced myself, I spoke about my cricket. 1 of the boys clapped. Sir was annoyed at his behaviour. After somebody else’s introduction, 1 of the students clapped. Sir had lost his cool and asked the former to leave the class. When sir was about to start teaching, he caught 2 girls talking. Now he was frustrated and he left the class, banging the door hard. We got scared. Soon our seniors came and asked us what had happened.

 CLASS REPRESENTATIVE (CR) DRAMA.

Our seniors wanted to appoint CRs for my class. Interested people were asked to stand and come in the front. I was not interested as I thought it to be a prank. But I was compelled to stand by my newly made friend, Muskaan.

Round 1 – introduce yourself

Round 2 – ex – tempore. (My topic – gatecrashing a suhaagraat)

This proved that all this CR thing was a prank. After the 2 rounds, the class was asked to vote.

I got the 2nd highest votes.

GENERAL SECRETARY FIASCO

The 2 people from each class who got the highest votes were shortlisted for GS. The girl who earned the highest votes from my class left. So my name was called out to replace her. The selected contestants were sitting on the stage.

Round 1 – GD (topic – PAIN VS PLEASURE)

Round 2 – GK

4 people were eliminated and 6 proceeded to the finals. In the finals,

Round 1 – introduce yourself without using the words – I, ME, MYSELF, MINE etc.

Round 2 – talent round (20secs)

Results were declared then. Thankfully I didn’t fall prey to these series of pranks. I didn’t become the GS.

SENIORS’ PERFORMANCE

They performed various dances. The video resumes were shown in the auditorium. They were hilarious. I enjoyed a lot. At the end, all the seniors went up the stage and 1 by 1 introduced themselves. My 2 so-called friends – Janhavi and Muskaan were seniors.

I was shocked. They were smiling from ear to ear.

FINALLY THE CURTAINS FELL

I had a rough idea that the assignment and teachers were a big prank, but I never thought that the students sitting in my class were actually my seniors.

The boy who clapped, and the girls who did not allow the seniors to put ‘tikka’ on their forehead were actually the seniors. In the last segment, they apologized to everyone and asked us to play the similar kind of prank with our juniors.

It was truly an awesome welcome and could have not have asked for anything better.

THE COLLEGE STARTS

After the first day, all the first year students were raring to embark on the new journey. We had a lot many subjects to study and very less time to learn them. It was in this special place, when I met Snehal, Disha, Akanksha and Abhilasha, who went to become some of the most special people of my life. There were these four girls who were friends with me and soon we formed one fine beautiful group ‘Hum Paanch’. To describe our friendship, I have written a few lines for these wonderful girls:

Coming from vivid backgrounds, we were destined to meet

The essence of our friendship is truly sweet

We are birds with different colours and feathers

The bond we share with each other is one of the best features

To meet you all was written in my destiny

So different yet so close are we is the irony

Through the days I realized that B-school life was the perfect blend of learning and fun. With many intra college events being organized round the year, we got an opportunity to showcase our talents and explore our potentials. Be it singing, dancing, participating in management games or playing sports, we did it all with great enthusiasm. Some of the college festivals like ‘Aakarshan’ and “Arthamanthan’ brought us together and gave a philip to our friendship. Those were the days when we stayed till late in the college working hard to win the festival title for our division. Though we won just a few events, what we actually won were the hearts of each other in the class. The pressure created by the internal tests and presentations was effectively eased by such events and we wanted more of them to follow.

THE EXCITING PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT CAMP

You may ponder how and why will be the personality development (PD) camp be exciting. But as the things unfold, soon you will realize that the camp was truly an exciting affair for all the first year students. The camp was at Khandala, in the month of February.  We all were divided into groups of 10 or 12 and had to perform something, be it a skit or dance or any other innovative thing. My group decided to dance. We were just three girls in the group. Only a couple of members from my group took this dance performance thing seriously. Rest all were behaving as if they were professional dancers and could grasp any dance step in a fraction of time (including me). What I liked about my group is the confidence. I think we took the famous saying too seriously, ‘Fortune favours the brave’. To tell you the truth our dance was not set till the very day of performance. It was just that half an hour when we put our hearts in and tried to literally mug up the steps. No prizes for guessing what happened on the D-Day. My group was dancing and the audience was laughing, God knows in praise or disgust, but all of us thoroughly enjoyed the performance. We concluded our performance with a Ganpati Aarti, and the poor boy who was the Ganpati forgot which hand was to be used to represent the trunk of the elephant God. In the end my entire division was on the dance floor and fearlessly danced just for themselves. Only three words can describe the epic performance, ENTERTAINMENT, ENTERTAINMENT and ENTERTAINMENT. My group’s dance performance was rightly regarded as the ‘stress buster’. To top it all, it is watched by every fellow student in my friend circle when they are tensed or stressed out.

Apart from the compulsory performance, we had early morning trekking and different sporting as well as management games in the package of the PD camp.

CRICKET, CAMPUS and TAPRI

Being the only female cricketer in the college, my male colleagues always took me in the team to play cricket with them. Playing cricket in B-school campus was a feather on the cap. It was fun playing in the college campus but what was more thrilling was the permission (to play) seeking process. The concerned authorities managed to come up with different reasons for not allowing us to play cricket. One of the best reasons that was told to us was, ‘Can you eat mangoes in October?’ only that professor knows what he exactly intended to tell us. All the cricketers were dumbstruck on hearing that analogy and after the incident we had a good laugh.

The institute being located in the outskirts of Mumbai, we hardly had any famous hangout places. It was only our chai tapri that came to our rescue. It was the most visited place by me and my friends.

SHIKHAR

The most awaited competition of the year, ‘Shikhar 2014’ was announced. A team of 2 was to be formed to scale the ‘Shikhar’. I partnered with my classmate Aakash Mehta, who, just like me, had the fire in his belly to win the ultimate crown. It is a national lever paper presentation competition that is organized by our institute N.L.Dalmia Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mumbai every year as the flagship event of our B-school. MBA institutes spread across the length and breadth of India are invited to participate in this marvellous event.

The journey to climb the ‘Shikhar’ deserved to be penned. Out of the 50 teams that participated in the event, only 1 team would be given the nod to represent our institute for ‘Shikhar’. The splendid journey to reach the ‘Shikhar’ kicked off with writing an abstract, followed by a 6000-word report and the internal presentation. It was because of this competition that we got the opportunity to gain knowledge on one of the most debatable topics in the global scenario, ‘Are Asian economies poised to lead the New World Order?’

Two months of sheer hardwork and perseverance finally reaped the sweet fruits of success on 26^th September 2014. We scaled the Shikhar and made our institute proud of our feat.

ORGANIZING GAMES and SHORT STINTS IN THE AUDITORIUM

Organizing a game on currency derivatives ‘Mudra Vinimay’ for my batchmates was indeed a learning experience. For almost a month we four – the organizers put in hours of hard work to comprehend the nuances of the game. Finally our game was ready to be played and it went off flawless on the ultimate day. Right from seeking permission, to making budget, to deciding the prizes to appointing the brokers, we enjoyed this process.

Guest lectures is a common phenomenon in any B-school. What our institute additionally focuses is on delivering the perfect guest introductions and thank you speech. I was one of the lucky few, to have got an opportunity in almost all the seminars to either introduce the guest or render the vote of thanks. These two years in B-school has taught me a lot and I am sure have helped all my colleagues to explore their talents.

FRIENDS FOREVER

The journey from ‘Hum paanch’ to now ‘Dus ka Dum’ was an eventful one. I don’t know when did ‘Hum Paanch’ come so close to ‘Cartel’ that now we have come to form one big group of 5 girls and 5 boys. Be it during the lunch hour or in the library we always sat together. After meeting these boys, I can say that they are truly the best beings in my life, caring and understanding. To give you an instance of their caring nature, whenever I used to work till late in the college, they waited for me in the college, accompanied me to the bus stop and didn’t leave till my bus would arrive. These small-small things enriched our relationship with each other.

THE JOURNEY TO BECOME A POET

In my group there is a boy Mitul Dharawat who is an excellent writer and a profound thinker. I can say that maybe it was because of him that I derived the inspiration to write poems. Earlier when I talked about exploring your potentials I can now say that in this beautiful life at B-school I explored this talent of mine.

Life is a book and I have successfully completed yet another chapter of this book. Life at B-school will always be reminisced by me and the golden moments that I spent with my friends and in the campus will be fresh in my mind forever.

Tags: B-school fun MBA