A new phase of my life began on the 27th June, 2017 when I received an e-mail mentioning the much-awaited confirmation of my admission into the Indian Institute of Management, Kashipur. It is known for its location advantage of being situated in one of the most densely industrialized regions in the country with over 180 industries having plants in and around the region. I had a short window to complete my further proceedings and life was never the same since then as I had my first challenge of managing my time constructively even before stepping into the college. I was already getting introduced to the slogan of the institute, which focusses on ‘Learning by Doing.’ I had a baggage of emotions primly being determined to perform at "The" place and that was accompanied a little bit of constructive anxiety.
Journey to Kashipur station was an opportunity for my mind to contemplate on the fact that I did make it to one of the elite institutes in India. Unlike the reticent person I am, it was a discovery of an outgoing and a boisterous person in me more like bringing out a similar stardust from a parallel universe, a stardust I retained in me forever. This quality of mine of being elicited very well in which my classroom played a very huge role. In one such occasion of my social media rituals, a friend of mine who is pursuing his masters in Georgia State University, opined that the classrooms resembled an acoustic theatre, the sliding green boards and the aura is something that only a rare breed can be a part of! Little did I know that this rare breed is a part of crème de la crème.
Being frank, initial lectures were daunting. On a lighter note, it was more like a Chinese movie with German subtitles. Professors, in the blink of an eye, had all the newcomers in their grip. Attending classroom lectures was sacrosanct to everyone. I used a word acoustic in the previous paragraph to glorify the fact that our skippers use American made premium Bose speakers to enlighten us. This accompanied by engrossing classroom and home-work exercises managed to keep me busy for the entire time. Talking about the fun part, the institute engages each and every one of the stakeholders with a range of cultural, extra-curricular and sporting events spread across the entire duration of the course.
This essential blend of various events ensured that every student was engaged sufficiently enough so that one is prepared for the forthcoming challenges that have to be faced. I was ready to make mistakes and more importantly pursue them – so as to ensure that I would never again repeat them. This constant process of learning and unlearning similar to a heat treated piece of metal, waiting to be a sword in the hands of an experienced sensei was in the making. In short, the experience that I had is the one that would be remaining with me forever.