Endless memories have been recalled over a cup of coffee, as to how exciting is the life of a fresher in a B school. Good memories start with ice breaker sessions to new found puppy love, while the same old mess food greets you with an eager smile, not to mention the absence of monetary freedom one may or may not have enjoyed. These are quite common in any B school, but SPJIMR has a neat trick up its sleeve. Welcome everyone to The Personal Growth Lab, aka PG Lab.
While we fresher’s try to grapple with the concept of a) persistent lack of sleep b) deadlines - for first two weeks, the administration is busy mapping our personal profiles, which forms the foundation of the PG Lab. Fast-forward 2 weeks and week 3 starts with an alarm clock at 5AM to reach Lonavala at 10AM.
The day started with a small session about ourselves. Needless to say, all that candy floss we made up to impress at the time of interviews is not what we were gathered for. In a Spartan frame of thoughts, (and professors wise as monks) we started to describe ourselves with a word, followed by close feedbacks from our new peers and professors. A long discussion over this ensued where for a fraction of time, I was lost in the novelty of it, only to realize that the group was pacing at a fast rate for me to catch up. These sessions acted as a compass to the traveller in us, wading our ways the map of life.
After our lunch, we packed ourselves like a herd of sheep in our buses and got down near a long stretch of a cliff. Armoured with a Banana and a packet of juice, we put our Indian Jones cap to find our instructor waiting for us with our today’s task. Talk about “reality TV show” feeling. Our task for the day was Treasure Hunt. Seemingly boring but there was a plot twist. We were divided as navigators and movers, and had to coordinate ourselves to pick various hints to reach the final “treasure”. This intense team building activity broke the mere “acquaintances” tag to start a new chapter as friends. There were Aha moments and then there were some expletives. Like sand and cement, these acted together to form the foundation of understanding each other, and in the long run, the importance of team playing skills.
The day ended with another light session where our analytical and design skills were put to use in a time crunch situation. By making a contraption for a pair of eggs, I was amazed by my team member’s skills and bonhomie we had developed only to have something here, something there, better than our competitors.
As I write this tonight, I find myself in a surge of emotions. I am happy that this happened to me. I am sad that probably this might be one of kind which just passed by. Wish I could rewind this a few more times...
---------------
About the Author:
Aditya Kumar Singh, a PGP1 student, SPJIMR 2016 - 2018