It was the 7th of May when I got the news that I was selected for PGP in IIM Indore. I was in a meeting with my manager and just as we were winding things up, this message about my selection into IIM Indore popped up on my phone screen. The rest of the days went by in a blur with me packing my bags, leaving my precious books behind and bidding a goodbye to Deloitte, my office for about two years.
Appearing for CAT and cracking the interviews is one thing, actually joining an institute is another. So, I was pretty apprehensive about what lay ahead of me. Would I like a place away from my cubicle which had been a make-shift home for me? Would I be able to perform with the requisite dedication after working for two years? Where would I be after two years? Am I actually ready for this?
On 28th June, I was standing in front of the gate of IIM Indore, trying to calm the butterflies in my tummy and to hush the questions in my mind. I took a couple of careful steps inside the campus, scrutinizing the yellow-black colored pavements on either side of the roads, the flowers growing in the cracks of the pavements and the listening to the distant sound of a peacock's call.
I went for my phone, which until now was tucked safely in my pocket, and I started clicking pictures of the picturesque place that IIM Indore was. This wasn't the apprehensive me who shied away from venturing out of her comfort zone. This was the entirely new me who had found her solace in the scenic beauty that IIM Indore had to offer and I wanted to capture every bit of it; some through my eyes, some through the lenses of my phone's camera.
The classes started and I wasn’t sure how I would fare in the subjects. But for a person who hailed from the clichéd background of engineering, the classes weren't too difficult either. The subjects were new, yes. But isn't that what we were there for, to learn new things, to increase our outlook and to grow as a person? I met people, got new perspectives by working in varied groups with people with a plethora of experiences and I learnt to embrace every new experience at IIM Indore. The deadlines, the assignments, the quizzes and the grading system offered me a whole new academic experience that I hadn’t been subjected to before.
My apprehensions regarding a new place turned out to be baseless as I gradually got to know the place that IIM Indore was. I found a comfort zone in the classes, found my solace in the picturesque hilltop that IIM Indore is and I found a whole new side of mine in whatever IIM Indore had to offer. I found a new friend in the castle on the hill that IIM Indore was.
Somewhere inside me, there was this joy of making a new friend and of finding a new home. Somewhere around me, the lyrics of a familiar song floated to my ears. It was Ed Sheeran's Castle on the Hill. Serendipity does work in mysterious ways, doesn't it?