What is unique? According to the Oxford dictionary unique means being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else. So, is my campus unique? Let’s find out based on my now 12-month long relationship with this place, IIM Udaipur. The only place other than my home where I have lived for more than two months. Yes! I was going to live in a hostel for the first time. My school was four kilometres from my home, my engineering college six kilometres and my office forty kilometres away from my house. Although this was not intentional and I intended to move to another place for doing my engineering, but life has other plans. Nevertheless, I wished to gain exposure to living in another city away from home and experience that part of life also. Finally, after joining IIM-Udaipur, I was getting that chance. So, IIM-Udaipur was going to be my home for the next 21 months.
After coming here, my focus was to participate in as many as possible opportunities I get and have a memorable MBA experience. So, the first chance started with me giving a speech in my first Toastmasters’ session in a class full of people. I am a reticent person, and that was a challenging thing for me, but I felt good after delivering the speech. The second opportunity I grabbed was a role of treasurer for our hostel party. I am a teetotaller, and I’m not used to going to a party, but now I was collecting money for the party. In this experience, I came to know the challenges faced by the organizers of the party. One problem is how to make sure the drinkers pay what they should and not what is asked of the teetotallers. Next chance I got was the cultural competition which was held over a period of three days. Although I lack the ability to express many emotions, I like acting. So, I got to take part in four live drama acts, one Dubsmash video, and one cheerleading act. It was a great experience sleeping late at night, getting up early in the morning, seeing people working so hard. I got to know many of my classmates better, and some were really nice people.
After some small chances, the next chance I got in the half marathon organized by our sports club. I don’t have the stamina to run a marathon (breathed Delhi’s air for 23 years), so I chose to do offline publicity for the event and become a student volunteer during the race. Just after that was our management fest, in which I was part of the logistics team and was tagged with a speaker for my club’s summit. Those were some busy days, but I enjoyed a lot. Next, I got a very noble opportunity, thanks to
PRAYATNA - our social responsibility club, to record audio books for blind students of Udaipur’s MLSU University. After completing the task, I realized, why there are so many people who are among the richest in the world spend a considerable part of their wealth in philanthropic activities because the real joy of having some resource is in sharing what we have with others who have less of it.
Life was very kind to me, and the opportunities kept coming to me. My team of three members won first prize in a competition organized by one of the older IIMs; I got to work with Josh Talks team in coordinating the Josh Talks event at our campus; visited and lived in a village for the first time in my life as a part of rural immersion programme, interacted with Sarpanch and her family; played Dandiya on Navratri night; played table-tennis continuously for hours; did several academic projects in group; flew kite on Uttarayan; danced for several hours in the college parties while remaining teetotaller; got to meet and know people from across the country; developing a business strategy plan for a real start-up; selected for summer internship after fourteen rejections in three days and for doing the internship went to a town near Chennai where majority of people speak only Tamil which I don’t understand; proposed one of my classmates (she never said yes, oh! sad life); will be going to Germany next term for students’ exchange programme and much more. But, as in MBA life we are always short of time, I can’t describe everything and would have to stop and work on cases for my tomorrow’s class.
Lastly, coming back to the point of being unique, all these experiences were unique for me. And giving us all these unique experiences make IIM Udaipur one unique campus for me and everyone else coming here.
Which group of Aditya Birla would I like to work with?
In line with my core interest, i.e., finance, I would like to work with Aditya Birla Capital Limited. In Aditya Birla Capital Limited, I would like to work with Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund as a fund manager. My areas of interest are equity research and financial modelling. Working as a fund manager, I could leverage my analytical skills and financial knowledge and manage investors’ fund efficiently. After working diligently in my domain, I’ll be gaining additional knowledge and skills and will move up the career from fund manager to senior fund manager and then to chief investment officer.
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