The covid outbreak introduced a plethora of challenges as well as opportunities into our life. When we sneak peek into our memories of older days, we can’t even imagine socializing with people so well while sitting behind the screens. The digital era has brought a new way to socialize with our kins & acquaintances. The video conferencing platforms have taken the shape of cafes and clubs to do meet-ups with our colleagues, friends & families.
My MBA journey was the nascence of a new phase in my life. I had always heard stories from people about their amazing b-school journey and how they spent their 2-years socializing with some of the smartest minds. But this chapter was totally a new experience for my peers and me. The mundane classes, group assignments, club tasks, case competitions, and even birthday meets; we all shared our bond, sitting far away from each other behind our laptops or mobile screens.
The new age of companionship brought in numerous ‘HOWs?’ for all of us, but we gradually started adapting to the change. We started discovering ways to socialize in a better way, either be it playing online games together, celebrating the festivals together, or even sending gifts to our friends on their birthdays. Some days, we planned on movie nights, the other days, we planned for ‘post-exam stress buster meets.’ Even in the peer learning part, we never failed to help each other, sharing ideas or thoughts with each other through frequent online meets; the connect might not be what we desired, but definitely better than the negatives we expected.
Since the online platform demands no boundaries of locations, we were privileged to welcome prominent speakers from different industry sectors and experience their knowledge sharing. It also became possible to connect easily with people from other b-schools and work collaboratively on common projects. The student engaging activities from different clubs & committees were also shaped to bring in new ways to offer value. The same happened with our curriculum; I was amazed to see how our professors also dived in and discovered new ways to recreate the learning experience.
There’s a part of human behaviour to adapt to changes, and I experienced the same. I am sure all of us have made some great new friends during this phase, even without meeting them for once. Although I do agree with the fact that being together in a physical vibe, spending time in each other’s room, celebrations & hi-fives, fighting over the last piece of pizza, gossiping over stories overnight and many more of these are incomparable, and the online platforms can’t replace them. But at the same time, all of us welcomed this change into their life in a positive manner and didn’t let the bar of companionship lower down.
About the Author:
Subham Bose is a first-year PGPM student at IIM Nagpur and an executive member of Toastmasters International-IIM Nagpur. He has 24 months of experience working with Tata Steel Downstream in an operation management role. He loves connecting with people and the idea of storytelling.