Looking back in time, I feel like my MBA had just started yesterday. It was only a few days ago, i.e. on 30
th March 2019, that our director gave the graduating batch a farewell speech. But I still distinctly remember his Day 1 speech on the transformational journey in the next two years. It has been no less.
Count-less quizzes (few surprises we didn’t like), presentations in each class, tea at the canteen in between classes, Mahesh Bhaiya’s tea during the exam, Dare2Compete, case study competitions, club and committees, live projects, birthday celebrations, festivals, parties, fest, friends, crush, and examination results. Every moment was an experience in itself, and each experience is worth remembering. Out of them, some of the most cherishing moments are:
- Tea with Director: Our institute is student-driven, so a group of students was invited to have tea with Director Sir to discuss various topics. I remember how we were asked to suggest ways to further improve on different aspects we noticed while completing our first year, be it academics, the infrastructure or any other aspect of the institute.
- Rural Immersion: Place and family of our birth are not at our hands and based on luck. This realisation came to me during the Rural Immersion Programme in which I stayed in a nearby village for four days. It was a humble experience that made us realize how we, as leaders of tomorrow, should work towards mitigating the differences and enabling the people to achieve what they truly deserve.
- International Business Practices: This is a 15-day international stint, where 120 students get exposed to different cultures, business processes and problems outside India while working with international partners. I got an opportunity to work with a partner in Singapore, an awesome tourist spot, worth exploring at least once. We worked with multinational companies and delivered the project under tight deadlines. We lived the spirit of principle: work hard, play hard
From these varied experiences, I extracted many important learnings throughout my MBA journey, and out of them I want to share two of the most important ones:
“Let not the fruit of action be your motive to action. Your business is with action alone and not the fruit of action.” - Shrimad Bhagavad Gita
During my MBA journey, I have realised this quote of The Gita time and again. From the start, I was determined to get the most out of my MBA, so I left no stone unturned and focused well on academics, participated in numerous competitions, did well at my club activities, took all the responsibilities that came my way. Not only that, I even participated in Flash mob for fest promotion and learned dancing. I did all this just for the sake of learning. Who would have known then that at the end of it, I would be awarded “Gold Medal for Best All-Rounder”? Yes, I got one. Had it been my intent from the beginning, I wouldn’t have been able to learn so much from the things I did.
“It's important to stay true to yourself and be strong on ethics, in the short term you may lose, in the long run, you’ll always win.”
This has a funny anecdote attached to it.
Banking, Financial Markets & Systems (BFMS) is one of the most coveted subjects at IIM Udaipur. A friend of mine and I slogged very hard in each finance subject so we could get this elective. But we both slept on the day when the course workshop was scheduled. We would not get this subject if we didn’t provide medical proof. Against all advice and tricks, we chose to suffer the consequence of our mistake and did not offer any fake proof. We didn’t get the subject from that faculty and decided to study it ourselves. We both are proud of our choice. We learned how not to bend knees to wrong things under the greed of personal benefit. We have learned our lesson well, but this choice has helped us grow.
I am grateful to all my peers for being excellent in their fields as this had always motivated me to excel in those fields and learn from them as much as I could. The journey wouldn’t have been the same without any one of you. Thank you so much for being there, you rock!
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About the Author:
Dhiraj Malvawala is a hard-core optimist, an extrovert who was awarded a Gold Medal for All Round Performance at Indian Institute of Management Udaipur. He firmly believes in maintaining balance across various spheres of life and is always curious to learn new things and love to help others. He loves trekking and sketching. Also, he is a part-time graphologist.