The Course Not (strikethrough On Not) Taken!

With the frenzy of course bidding for the next term grappling the entire batch, there were a lot of suggestions pouring in according to multiple filters. Some suggested to choose a course belonging to a dedicated vertical while others told to look out for amazing reviews by seniors for choosing a subject in term four. In the midst of it all, I stumbled upon Social Movements. I was a bit perplexed to see what such a course was doing in an MBA program. Upon prodding further, I found out that it had previously been offered at other IIMs and had an entirely different pedagogy. Beating the shackles of the Indian education system, the course offered a fresh take on the learning emphasis by focusing on many a practical aspects. It had an entire 100% component dedicated to project work which was quite startling as per the Indian subject benchmarks. The curiosity in me pushed me to opt for this subject and voila, here I am writing a reflective journal on what I learned and how did the subject go.

Starting with the first class, the professor had made it clear this wasn’t a course like the other where evaluation would be a metric to judge our accomplishments. The entire course structure was flexible and student driven. Be it the presentations or voluntary class participation via questions on email, at every point one had to take ownership of their own part. This taught me a very important lesson of self-management. Throughout our academic journey, we are always told what to do whereas this course gave me the freedom and responsibility of managing what I wanted to do. Though not being overly extrovert, I did not often share my thoughts out loud in the class. But the course made me think hard and even made me step out of my comfort zone while questioning some of my long-standing beliefs.

The guests who were invited to each of the talks, brought an amazing flavor to the classes. I particularly remember Mr. Martin Mcwan’s amazing talk during the session on Dalit Rights. The honesty and rawness of the personal encounters that he shared with the class, were moving. The intricate details of how he witnessed discrimination not just among different castes but also within the castes made me realize how what we were discussing wasn’t some superficial case but a very real situation, prevalent in my country, with its own finer nuances.

Having discussions about contemporary topics like the farmers rights and topics that are generally not subjected to open discussions throughout our curriculum like LGBTQIA+ community made me expand my knowledge sphere and become a more informed citizen in the society. With my classmates opening up about their personal takes on these topics, I was exposed to a spectrum of ideas that I was previously aloof of. Though not an explicit course objective, but the at-length discussions even helped me connect better with some of my batchmates because of their takes on certain topics that I found interesting and we took those discussions beyond the classroom (which counts for a lot in an online learning setup).

The course also helped me shun my insecurities to an extent and emerge as a bolder and more confident person about my ideas and beliefs. Since childhood I have been an extremely conscious kid about using resources around me optimally- be it switching off lights in an empty room or avoiding running taps. However, I always felt insecure about identifying as an environmentalist as I thought the idea was much bigger than my little efforts and that what I was doing was not enough to identify as one. But the session by Disha A Ravi on Intersectional Environmentalism made me aware of the fact that the only requirement to identify as an environmentalist is to care enough for the planet and think about sustainability. And this idea of sustainability can be different for different people!

One of the personal highlights of this course was helping a COVID impacted family. Though initially skeptical about finding people to help (with limited movability allowed inside campus), I later realized that I didn’t have to step very far off. Children of contractual staff at the institution were losing out on their studies as their schools had mandated attending online classes but they only had a few devices (parents’ mobile phones) at home that could not be used when their parents were away for work during the day. I decided to adopt one such family immediately and arranged funds (sourced from friends and family) to procure a smartphone. I have plans to help all such families inside the campus as an extension to this initiative and would be launching a crowd fund for the same shortly. This project gave a me a sense of unparalleled satisfaction and I felt really happy helping out the kid!

Another great aspect about this course was the fact that all class sessions were interspersed with student presentations. This platform for participation by all stakeholders ensured that the information flow was not one way and also helped in realizing that each opinion mattered in the class. The professor having listed only broad themes of discussion and not assigning particular topics added to the information bubble generated in class as each student had a different take on the theme. This resulted in a broad spectrum of ideas being brought up for discussion thus enriching the in-class experience for all. I am glad I took a chance on this course and extremely thankful to Sandeep Ji for providing this amazing experience to my cohort.