“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom,” said India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, on the eve of India’s hard-earned independence. India had indeed woken up to a new life 69 years ago.
Note: SPJIMR is the only B-School in India to launch a unique pedagogic mentoring programme called 'Abhyudaya'. Every SPartan has to mentor a bright, underprivileged kid in the first year of their MBA. This form of 'Experiential Learning' helps them get a more nuanced perspective of 'Bharat', and trains them not only to be better-equipped business leaders of tomorrow, but also better human beings. The following is a diary entry of one such SPartan (me!) on his first visit to his mentee's house.
It all unfolded on 7th March 2015 when sitting amidst the quaint surroundings of Hampi I received a phone call from an unusual number and a baritone voice from the other end congratulated me saying that I had made it to SPJIMR. Two years of incessant efforts finally bore results and thus began my journey to of one of India’s finest b-school.
In 2013, an engineer with high-flying dreams graduated from BITS Pilani. With a perfect undergraduate life and a CGPA of 7.4, he was placed with Oracle Financial Services Software (OFSS) as a Senior Technical Associate during 3rd day of campus placements. He had also cracked IIM Kozhikode (IIMK), a premier B-School that provided a 2-year MBA course. The icing on the cake was a pre-placement offer (PPO) from a startup where he enjoyed working during a 6-month internship program that was christened Practice School-2 (PS-2) by BITS Pilani. Here he was, standing at the cross-road, wondering which path to take. You may note that there were three roads instead of two mentioned in Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’. Additionally, it was not a yellow wood but a harsh economy that had just started taking baby steps after the recession period of 2009-11. What did he do then?
spark (spɑːk) n. a small fiery particle thrown off from a fire, produced by striking together two hard substances such as metal; a latent particle capable of growth or developing; A sense of liveliness and excitement; anything that kindles,activates or stimulates; inspiration or catalyst;a special quality of energy, intelligence or enthusiasm that makes somebody very clever, amusing, etc. ; a small part of a quality or an intense feeling.
Being a Chartered Accountant, decision of pursuing an MBA is something unusual. Already earning decently, working in a Big 4, age more than an average but still why not. And when I have completed my two years, re-entered the job matket, I realize that the decision of getting back to a b-school and especially, SPJIMR was really worth it. And if I wouldnot have invested my 2 years, it would have been a great regret. It would be something which I would never realize because I would have never seen it. There would have been a blank, a gap, a vaccum in my life.
As I sit down to write this piece, a beautiful song plays softly in the background. "Kaha hoon main" from the movie Highway. And it gets me thinking. The song makes a lot of sense. Two months ago I was working in a corporate job and, today,here I am as a student in the most vibrant city of the country. Where am I? I am with some of the most talented and brightest youth of our country. The experience has been very different to my engineering college so far. Some of my friends are younger and some elder. Some talk about their life in a manufacturing plant while some entertain us with stories from abroad. I am a foodie and when I am told about luchi mangsho, I want to go to Kolkata! Meanwhile, my other friend would lure me to come to Bangalore to try the softest idlis and cutting chai. SPJIMR celebrates diversity.
There is a thing about latent abilities. You have to force them to come out. I have been at SP Jain, for two months now. I have become a better person today, than I was yesterday. But I might be committing a crime (at least in the annals of SPJIMR), if I weren't to qualify that adjective with facts! So what exactly has Vismay Harani achieved in the two months that he has been at this college?
“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom,” said India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, on the eve of India’s hard-earned independence. India had indeed woken up to a new life 69 years ago.
Note: SPJIMR is the only B-School in India to launch a unique pedagogic mentoring programme called 'Abhyudaya'. Every SPartan has to mentor a bright, underprivileged kid in the first year of their MBA. This form of 'Experiential Learning' helps them get a more nuanced perspective of 'Bharat', and trains them not only to be better-equipped business leaders of tomorrow, but also better human beings. The following is a diary entry of one such SPartan (me!) on his first visit to his mentee's house.
It all unfolded on 7th March 2015 when sitting amidst the quaint surroundings of Hampi I received a phone call from an unusual number and a baritone voice from the other end congratulated me saying that I had made it to SPJIMR. Two years of incessant efforts finally bore results and thus began my journey to of one of India’s finest b-school.
In 2013, an engineer with high-flying dreams graduated from BITS Pilani. With a perfect undergraduate life and a CGPA of 7.4, he was placed with Oracle Financial Services Software (OFSS) as a Senior Technical Associate during 3rd day of campus placements. He had also cracked IIM Kozhikode (IIMK), a premier B-School that provided a 2-year MBA course. The icing on the cake was a pre-placement offer (PPO) from a startup where he enjoyed working during a 6-month internship program that was christened Practice School-2 (PS-2) by BITS Pilani. Here he was, standing at the cross-road, wondering which path to take. You may note that there were three roads instead of two mentioned in Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’. Additionally, it was not a yellow wood but a harsh economy that had just started taking baby steps after the recession period of 2009-11. What did he do then?
spark (spɑːk) n. a small fiery particle thrown off from a fire, produced by striking together two hard substances such as metal; a latent particle capable of growth or developing; A sense of liveliness and excitement; anything that kindles,activates or stimulates; inspiration or catalyst;a special quality of energy, intelligence or enthusiasm that makes somebody very clever, amusing, etc. ; a small part of a quality or an intense feeling.
Being a Chartered Accountant, decision of pursuing an MBA is something unusual. Already earning decently, working in a Big 4, age more than an average but still why not. And when I have completed my two years, re-entered the job matket, I realize that the decision of getting back to a b-school and especially, SPJIMR was really worth it. And if I wouldnot have invested my 2 years, it would have been a great regret. It would be something which I would never realize because I would have never seen it. There would have been a blank, a gap, a vaccum in my life.
As I sit down to write this piece, a beautiful song plays softly in the background. "Kaha hoon main" from the movie Highway. And it gets me thinking. The song makes a lot of sense. Two months ago I was working in a corporate job and, today,here I am as a student in the most vibrant city of the country. Where am I? I am with some of the most talented and brightest youth of our country. The experience has been very different to my engineering college so far. Some of my friends are younger and some elder. Some talk about their life in a manufacturing plant while some entertain us with stories from abroad. I am a foodie and when I am told about luchi mangsho, I want to go to Kolkata! Meanwhile, my other friend would lure me to come to Bangalore to try the softest idlis and cutting chai. SPJIMR celebrates diversity.
There is a thing about latent abilities. You have to force them to come out. I have been at SP Jain, for two months now. I have become a better person today, than I was yesterday. But I might be committing a crime (at least in the annals of SPJIMR), if I weren't to qualify that adjective with facts! So what exactly has Vismay Harani achieved in the two months that he has been at this college?
