“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.”
–Joseph Campbell
Leaving the City of Joy, the place where I was born and brought up, was one of the toughest moments of my life. I was pretty sceptical about leaving my comfort zone, but MBA from IIFT was the catalyst which triggered in me the spark to start afresh in a completely unknown city.
While Delhi was hot and sultry, the first sight of the Wings of Wisdom sent a shiver down my spine. My reservations with regards to leaving my city for the first time, living in the hostel life, staying away from my family were subdued by a sky-high motivation and a zest to achieve my dreams.
I was already acquainted with my batch mates as a result of the formal and informal groups created by the Media Committee at IIFT on various social networking platforms, so meeting them one-to-one was pretty warm and welcoming. It seemed as if we had known each other for years. The first of my interactions were with my roomies and loomies - the ones with whom we share the loo. While Archita (Goyal) plays the valiant Lady Hercules at shooing away the lizards, Mouli (Banerjee) and Aditi (Paranjape) sing advertisement jingles with me, our favourite being
Washing powder Nirma. Just two weeks in and I am already having never-ending gossips and giggles with them and that isn’t even the best part. The cherry on the cake is the karaoke- sessions and midnight-Maggi
s that we share.
2:00am is the new 9:00pm at IIFT! Let’s not forget that this Business School is one of the most prestigious institutions of India, which accommodates the brightest minds of the nation from diverse backgrounds. We have already been familiarized with the rigor of late night assignments, **:59:59 deadlines, sleep crunch, early rising and full-day schedules. It is difficult to wake up without snoozing multiple alarms but we are getting the hang of it. After all a dream doesn’t become a reality through magic, but hard work, dedication and sweat.
The teaching faculty at IIFT is one filled with illuminaries - the insights, the prospects, the exemplification with the pinches of humour in between to keep the student’s mind clung to the two-hour classes is incredible. It is a learning process at an entirely different from the graduation and school education.
One of the most interesting happenings have been the mutual conversation with the seniors who have been the source of information as well as parties. While they are the basis of query solutions for our batch, they throw the best parties! Special thanks to the committee members for throwing a grand fresher’s party to welcome the juniors at the campus.
An explicit lesson that IIFT introduces on the very first day is the bond and unity. While we had theoretical moral science lessons in primary school about sharing, caring and friendship, IIFT gives a practical experience of the same. Be it five people eating from one single plate, or submitting batch penalty assignments at 3:00am deadlines, we did it together as a team. It hasn’t been long but the essence of working together, helping each other, moving forward as a team and thinking as one mind with variegated ideas is gradually being apprehended. Hopefully, this would grow stronger and sturdier over the days to come.
Before IIFT happened to me, I felt I would be the most-homesick person barging all the records in the history of home-yearns but who knew in spite of the location being different, the sense of belongingness is the same.
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ABG Company:
I have a graduation degree in Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) with specialization in Accounting & Finance and also have cleared the Intermediate level (IPCC both groups) in the Chartered Accountancy Course, I have a strong inclination towards the sector of financial services. Hence I am oriented towards Aditya Birla Capital Limited which has a pioneering role in the sector of finance. ABCL has a widespread presence across different financial services be it private equity, corporate lending, structured finance or currency and commodity broking which are not just solutions for its customers but also an opportunity for learning and knowledge for finance enthusiasts like me. I want to explore the world of finance further, understand and analyse the markets and be competent in deriving opinions and conclusions for the same.