“Ab hai tu jahaan
Din raat saare naye hai
Arzoo jawaan
Jazbaat saare naye hai
Naye raastein hai tere vaaste
Toh rahe kyun panahon mein tu
Tere liye nayi hai zameen naya aasamaan
Likh de hawaaon pe koi nayi dastan”
Let us be honest for a second here, alright?
As I finally sit in my own bedroom, back home, and ponder over what my life has been for the last 8 months, it dawns upon me what a whirlwind of a journey it has been! Actually, let’s make that the last one year. I still remember the day I gave my CAT exam and all the hectic, sleepless nights and overwhelming days that led up to it. I can still vividly recount the day MDI released its final list of shortlisted candidates and how I cried out of pure happiness and disbelief upon getting accepted. Most importantly, I still remember how hopeful and excited I felt about this new journey I was going to embark upon.
I was all set to live my dream – doing an MBA, living in a hostel for the very first time and finally moving out of my hometown!
And I am fortunate enough to say that MDI has not let me down! Amidst all the overwhelming amount of presentations, last-minute submissions, deadlines, case-study competitions, summer placement preparation, pre-reads and what-not, I managed to create my own tiny space, my home, at MDI and slowly but surely fell in love with it.
Even though, I can probably write a book about why MDI is ‘Home away from Home’ now, here are some reasons why I ended up falling in love with MDI:
1) The Beautiful Campus
A green oasis in the middle of the city, MDI has managed to preserve its rustic charm throughout the years. The lush green campus with all its majestic red-brick buildings took my breath away the first time I stepped foot in MDI, Gurgaon. 8 months have passed since and not a single day goes by when I don’t stop to marvel at the beauty that surrounds me. Right from the melody of the birds in the morning during spring to squirrels playing around in the numerous green spaces that MDI is home to, everything adds to the charm of the campus! I especially love the campus during the monsoons when everything is awash with rains and there is a slight smell of petrichor in the air!
2) The People
Since my first day at MDI, I have been surrounded by some of the most brilliant, smart and hard-working people that I’ve met in my life. Right from working on group assignments together to late night strolls and conversations over chai at Sharma ji, I’ve learnt so much in these past few months from the friends I’ve made and continue to do so every day. Not only have I made some of my closest friends at MDI but somehow, I managed to find my family in this beautiful place.
3) The Student Life
MDI is a place that is always hustling and bustling with some activity or the other. Whether it’s some festival or just a normal weekend, MDI believes in working hard and partying harder – with everyone! Events like Imperium, Illumina, KOK etc make up the highlights of the student life at MDI and ensure that no two days on campus are alike! This is what excites me the most since life at MDI never gets boring, in fact there is so much constantly happening on campus that you often find it difficult to choose between different activities you can participate in.
4) Hostel Life
As someone who is living in a hostel for the first time, I was very apprehensive about the entire experience initially. I still remember the apprehension I had felt when I discovered that I was allotted a triple sharing room! Uncertain about how I would manage to share my space with two other humans, I had silently trodden towards Kaveri, the hostel that was supposed to magically turn into my home from then on. But surprisingly, it did! From being unsure about how to live with these strangers to now being unsure about how to live without them, Kaveri slowly but surely did become my home, my refuge from the world. Right from having random 3 a.m. movie marathons to pulling all-nighters together during placements, we’ve done it all and I’d do it again any day!
I still have one year to go at MDI and I can’t wait to make the most out of it. It may sound cliché but I never realised when MDI transformed into home but I deep in my heart, I now know that when the time comes, it is going to be a very hard goodbye!
Write-up Credits: Aashima Garg, PGPM 2019-21, MDI Gurgaon