And Now, It Is IIM Shillong!

“And now, it is IIM Shillong!” Those were the first words that would have probably come out of the mouths of all the MBA aspirants after getting their call from the institute. The interview process began in the month of April, the time by which most of the other private b-schools had finished all their processes and some of them were going to announce their results. The interview process of IIM Shillong was the best I had ever attended. The ambience was so comforting and if at all there were any last-minute shortfalls, they were attended to at ease. These helped us maintain our calm and bring out our best. By the time the shortlist was announced, many of us had already fixed our mind on other institutes. But still, the different aspects of the institute dragged us to choose this over all our other choices. This reflects the huge potential of the institute and our belief that this would be the best for us. The campus being a student driven entity, the exposure of its clubs and committee and the golden opportunities of corporate competitions instilled in me a great drive to join the institute. We all eagerly looked forward to the best times of our life. The expectations of how this would be THE turning point in our life grew with no bounds. The first day at the campus comforted us with all the hospitality and quenched some of our curiosity. The later part of the first few days were occupied with insights from seniors and introductory courses. This was when I realized that none of us actually were from Shillong. This brought a little feeling of relief as the place is going to be new for all of us and we were having our debut together. The unique point was the fact that there was a plethora of differences amongst us in terms of our culture, traditions and most important of all, languages. But, it felt great being acquainted with fellow mates with whom we had nothing in common. It helped us give a new taste to our lives. We had the influence of each other’s lifestyle. This gave birth to a hybrid way with which we looked at our life and handled it every day. Coming from Chennai, I have never had a chance to miss the sun for more than a couple of hours. But here, it has been days without the sun. We get fogged by clouds inside our classrooms where we take a moment to appreciate the scenic beauty outside. The most unique concept here was the importance given to sustainability. Apart from preaching about the idea of sustainability, this campus reaches till the last mile to implement it. Solar panels and the idea of maintaining the greenery of the campus reflect the same. Though this is a temporary campus, yet it serves as a fully functional one equipped with all innovations. Apart from these, the campus takes up activities outside the college too. There have been a lot of initiatives including setting up of bamboo dustbins and helping school kids. These definitely make this campus a beautiful environment to nurture the inner sense of responsibility and empathy in all its participants.

I come from a very close-knit family. My both parents work in the insurance sector. Addressing the day to day problems of a financial institution including the customer feedback and new plans has always been a routine at home. As a student, I was always interested in numbers and financial figures. This inclination drives me till date to have a special preference for finance in my post-graduation. Being a typical south Indian family, we still have the habit of maintaining everyday accounts of our expenditure at home. These unintentionally have developed in me a very keen interest on the same. Also, being an engineer has helped me grow calculative about my decisions. This is why I would like to be a part of the Aditya Birla Capital Limited. It is one of the top 5 private non-banking financial companies. This company has shown enormous growth over 20% from fiscal year 2017 to 2018 with an operating revenue of 13,428 crore. It contributes to almost 20% of the total revenue of Birla Group of companies. I have always felt that this would help in giving me an opportunity to improve my key and practical understanding and implementation of my education portfolio.

  Pranishaa R Prakash PGP 1st Year IIM Shillong