People never seem to reveal a lot about what happened in their MBA programmes when asked. Other than the usual tiny tidbits & the proverbial “it’s something you need to experience” & “those were the best 2 years of my life”, there’s not really a lot they tell you before going on a nostalgia trip in their minds, reminiscing about the golden days. As someone who was knee-deep in UPSC preparations only a year ago, this sudden shift to MBA did catch me flat-footed and I was heavily underprepared on what to expect from the program. Apart from the typical 20 somethings’ mind muddled with, in the words of CS Lewis, “a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds”, I was pretty much a clean slate when I came here. That didn’t make me any less excited or anxious about it though.
“A B-School for Change Masters & Thought Leaders”, that’s what it says right at the entrance to MDI. I scoffed at it the first time I saw it, and the second, and the third. You get the gist. But 8 months into the PG program, with the pieces of the mystic puzzle called life finally moving into some sort of visible structure, it, dare I say it, has finally started making sense. It might be a little early, but a lot has changed over the past half a year or so. A line from my diary which I wrote a month into this adventure, perfectly encapsulates that feeling, “The lines between days have blurred to the point the only way to keep track of what day it is, is the food that’s served in the mess. All days are the same, yet so very different. So much to do, so little time, so little to do, yet so much time.”
The most important change in these few months would be the confidence with which I carry myself. Talking to strangers used to my pet peeve and yet, in the first weeks of induction itself, I had acquainted myself with more people than I had done in the previous two years. Maybe it was the setting, maybe it was the pressure of trying to extract all out of the program, but it worked like a charm nevertheless. “Networking”, the holy grail, the reason why most people do MBA, which had eluded me all this time, came ever so naturally to me, all of a sudden. And that network of mine, even though still in its nascent stages, has been the greatest contributing factor in my development here. And what better way to foster them than to work on real-life problems businesses across India are facing. The umpteen competitions I worked on with some of the brightest minds in India have been huge learning experiences. Be it working on creative ways to market insurance so its hip and more in tandem with today's world, or trying to create a brand-new non-alcoholic beer brand from scratch, or trying to figure out how to sell more diapers, each competition has taught me something new. I would go into the competition not knowing a single thing about the relevant area and somehow within the next few weeks, I would have enough material to bore everyone at the party all night long.
Academically speaking, I must have already gone through hundreds of case studies where I had to put myself in the situation of a manager, executive, or CEO. I debated issues with section mates who became truly amazing friends. Sometimes we agreed; other times we disagreed; but one thing was clear: we were building our “confidence muscle”. And as I learn about people who have changed our world, few have done it from positions of fear or anxiety. This does not mean we would not make mistakes, but it means that we have developed the confidence to not shy away from positions where we know that many people’s lives depend on our decision.
But it hasn’t been just work since I got here. I had my fair share of fun as well. The days are quite mundane at MDI, but the night is when things really start picking up. Be it the late-night nonsensical discussions & gossip sessions at Sharma’s, waiting for that mail saying “Jhaji on campus” to quench my midnight craving for tea, the 2 AM badminton games, or the long walks around the campus, time really seems to stop for a while during those late hours in Sukhrali.
MDI has offered me so much in the little time we have been together. It’s a struggle putting together everything that has gone by & how it has made me a better individual in a single piece. The one thing I have learnt from my time spent here though is that life moves very fast and it’s easy to miss out on a golden opportunity while you are lost in the million other things that are happening around you. I don’t know if I’m really qualified to be giving advices here, but if you really want to make the best out of your MBA journey, and become a “Change-Master” or a “Thought-leader”, probably the first thing you need to do is master the art of saying “No” & focus on the aspects of the campus life that really contribute to making you a better person. Everything else comes later.
I’m still a work in progress, and my friends would be the first ones to point out the flaws in me, but that’s the thing, this is probably the best time to work on it, and I hope this first year was only a trailer of what lies ahead.
Write-up Credits: Kaushik K (PGPM 2019-21), MDI Gurgaon