It was around 6 AM in the morning but still dark. The birds had arrived, but the sun had not. A drop on the wet of the windows of the cars was slowly sliding down to meet the pond of water collected at the window base. It was winters and another sphere of water had started its journey from the forehead because it was the day of the CAT, Common Admission Test for the admissions into the IIMs – the hallowed grounds for some, temples for others, and a distant snow-capped Himalayan mountain, that even a seasoned trekker fails to conquer 9 out of 10 times, for the rest. The drop of sweat was not on my forehead but on my father’s. It was to be the 5th attempt at the exam of his son and he desperately wanted to see his son not telling the disparity tales again. The winter winds blew taking away the drop of sweat, the disparity, and the time passed like the wheels of an aeroplane leaving the runway in a hope of touching the ground again after a successful journey. The plane had arrived safely and brought with itself a sense of calm after the landing. 99.18 it was in the CAT.
Another journey had begun.
After a round of multiple interviews, travelling from one state to another and discussing the sacred question of why I wanted to do the MBA all these years with the people on the other side of the table in the interviews more number of times than I would have done with myself, another sense of calm took over. But this was not calm but the calm before the storm, a storm called as evaluation results. With multiple calls converted, I had to arrive at a decision about which institute to join. After the first round of filtering, I had to choose between IIM Trichy and IIM Udaipur. Being from Delhi, and having done my graduation from Delhi, Udaipur had always been first on the list because of the location factor. After having discussions with friends and parents, it was finalized that I would be joining at Udaipur. It was 24 th June’s night when I started to rethink about my decision did I realise that to leave the comfort zone, that I might get at a location near to my homeplace, I would have to take a tough decision and do what is rational. Not only was I getting a diversity here at IIM Trichy, it was a chance for me to experience a different culture altogether. It was that very night when I booked my tickets for IIM Trichy and came here on 26 th June.
IIM Trichy is one of the best growing IIMs of the second generation, so much so, that the college is giving a tough competition to all the old established institutes in the corporate and sports competitions. After I arrived here, I understood the reason why. When the director, Dr. Metri, addressed our batch, he explained his vision for the institute and how the institute is moving along that vision. Dr. Metri looked very determined to have the college at the top 5 rankings and the amount of confidence he had in his students motivated the students by a great deal. I have seen him take part in all the activities be it the smallest of the activities to addressing the guest lecturers. The academic rigour was another thing that got showcased during the orientation program. And the campus is a state of the art self-sustainable campus. All the things that I heard about the place before coming when I saw were being implemented, it felt reassuring and has motivated me to take the bar higher from here.
Which Aditya Birla Company I want to work for and Why?
I would like to join Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Ltd. I am a firm believer of learning from seeing things practically. We have all been using the brands such as Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Peter England etc. I would practically like to see and understand how the management of the brands behind the retail stores that are visible to the customer is done. Since the major part of the revenue would have been coming from the retail store business in the fashion and retail ltd, I would like to understand the position of the brand in the online industry and enhance, if there is a scope, which I think there must be, the position in the e-commerce business.
This article is written by Tushar Arya - Class of 2020