“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.” - Sun Tzu
‘I am an IITian’, even after two months here at IIT Kanpur this one line still fills our heart with excitement. Each one among the 54 students here who have started the journey into the MBA programme of IIT Kanpur, batch of 2017-19, feels that pride and with that equally realises the responsibility it carries.
We started our journey here on 20
th July. Meeting our batch mates for the first time still feels thrilling. Though we knew each other through the WhatsApp/Facebook group that was created by our seniors to make our registration process as smooth as possible. We were given several assignments before the registration to give us an inkling of the idea of how life at IIT Kanpur is going to be. Assignments were planned in a way such that we get a hands-on experience on case studies, presentations, group activities and article reading. We began burning the midnight oil as a precursor to actually doing it, and how! These assignments united us all as a team and we got to know about the strengths of us all, while developing bonds that will carry on the rest of our lives, if not the next two years alone. Here at campus we were given certain treasure hunt tasks to make our bonds even stronger, to compartmentalise working as a team. The icing on the cake was the way seniors interacted with us to make us feel at home with each student being assigned a mentor to help him/her with the issues in hostel or maybe studies. There remained no question unanswered and no qualm unaddressed.
We are a batch of 54 students who represent pan-India cross culture ethos here within the campus, giving us glimpses across the large subcontinent. There are students from Punjab, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh from the north, Maharashtra and Gujrat from the west, Kolkata and Chattisgarh from the east, Madhya Pradesh from the centre and Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka from the south. Living with mates of such diverse culture creates a really exciting environment where we get a look into the very adorable quirks and admirable idiosyncrasies. The average age of the students in our batch is 23.5 years, with an approximate female to male ratio of 1:4. Our batch has a huge academic diversity of students, with some having work experience of more than 40 months to students who just completed his/her undergrad working together on the same project, which indeed creates a good amalgam of freshness and experience. Average work experience of the batch is 18.3 months with experience in reputed companies such as Amazon, OYO, TCS, Hexagon, Accenture, Genpact, IMS Health, Feedback Infra, ISMT Limited, RIL, MRF, ZTE, EValueserve, JSW Steel, DENSO, Binary, Semantics, L&T, Infosys, Sopra. Students have worked in the domain of management, internet securities, risk management, mechanical design, maintenance management, business analysis, technical training, marketing and Quality assurance.
Managing work and academia with other co-curricular activities is very important in life and students from our batch have mastered the art of balancing these various facets. There are students who have huge experience in public speaking, to students who have played multiple sports at different competitive levels and some with a diploma in Tabla. Students with fascination in standup comedy not just lighten their own stress but also act as anxiety busters for each of their batch mates, OAT being the stage for such relaxing moments of jokes and music. Some specialise in dramatics and extempore, others indulge in competitive sports for the mind such as contraption, Rubik’s cube solving and chess Living in this lush green campus, out of the individual comfort zone, is itself a joyful but adventurous ride.
With hearts full of boisterous excitement and the grey cells full of active ideas, this batch believes in standing united to take all further challenges head-on. Having been given the opportunity to create something special and bask in the further glory of the spoils that come from the work ethic that we will develop and inculcate among ourselves. As Shery Sandberg rightly says:
“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, DON'T ASK WHAT SEAT! Just GET ON!”