A Surprising Rendezvous With MBA!

One day you’re sitting on your bed attending Development Economics classes on mute with the camera turned off, and the next, you’re in a classroom with 60 students attending a 90-minute lecture on how ‘Diamonds are Forever is a marketing gimmick to entice customers.

My MBA journey has been nothing short of a revelation of how far I can stretch myself—being an economics graduate who spent 1.5 years at home attending online classes and then another year preparing for CAT, which was an online course, transitioning into a residential program and attending live classes hasn’t been a cakewalk.

While one is constantly told that MBA is a rigorous course, it is only when you live the MBA life that you truly understand the extent of the rigor. I came in expecting classes five days a week to study and give exams with a few occasional extracurriculars. Reality isn’t anywhere close to this pipe dream. However, I would like to iterate at this point that, looking back at the past two months, this curriculum is probably a prerequisite for what lies ahead.

During the initial two weeks, we were awake till 3 am, at the very least daily, attending and taking part in various orientations. While it was tough to cope with the changing timelines initially, now what’s considered unusual is if I fall asleep before 4 am. Soon after classes started, and while I did go in expecting the professor to give notes that I could religiously prepare, another twist hit my way. It is never a monologue; management students have constantly been encouraged to participate in class. Going unprepared to classes in another no-go and having been reprimanded on the first session, it became a practice to start pre-prepping for types. It is like being pushed to think and to think differently.

MBA has tested and developed my resilience like no other. Every morning I wake up thinking I could bunk a class and catch another hour of sleep, but the thought is short-lived because of compulsory attendance. There are days when I’ve skipped breakfast, woken up 15 minutes before class, and reached the classroom at the nth minute. Not advisable, but bound to happen. Living, learning, and adapting with a diverse group-someone didn’t know how to wash clothes, another who couldn’t adjust to the messy food for days, and yet another who never stepped out of her room- did broaden my perspective that it wasn’t just me who saw a paradigm shift in lifestyle. The fact that everyone is in the same boat made it slightly easier. Now, core memory is six people in a room at 2 am trying to figure out accounting problems while munching on a bag of chips and laughing about whether we will pass or fail.

All of this aside, there is a multitude of cultural activities that keep happening around the year. Academics aside, dancing to Malayalam songs on Onam with 200 students cheering or welcoming Ganpati into the campus will always be the cultural highs for me. Not to mention the plethora of competitions and deadlines to meet, some of which I have missed. Each day I woke up thinking this was the most I could do; the curriculum hit me with surprises that made me stretch beyond what I thought I could. There is hardly any time given to transition into this lifestyle; it was like a sudden jolt, which is precisely what ensured I learned to survive, so far at least. Now that I look back, it all seems worth it!

Riya is a PGP1 student of IIM Nagpur. She graduated in Economics from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. In her leisure time, Riya likes to dance and cook. She also takes an interest in event management. With interests in HR and Analytics, Riya looks forward to graduating in 2024.