Irrelevant as it may sound, Tango’s got nothing to do with my article. However, my next three hundred words or so would revolve around the latter. The past three months, to be precise the first Trimester of my MBA Life, has taught me a lot of lessons. So here’s a glimpse into my first trimester at SBM, NMIMS Mumbai.
I remember I had updated my Facebook status as ‘Konverted’, after getting an admission to IIM Kozhikode merely for the swag. However, hailing from Kolkata (Calcutta), the ever-whining me always criticized using such misspelt words. Later, I found it was a frequent sight on Facebook, be it for the onward journey to ‘Kampus’ to being inducted as a ‘Komrade’. I could feel the martyr in me approaching a faster death as I was gradually journeying from a person who criticizes such acts to a person who thinks critically. Random introspection and exchange of thoughts to identify any plausible reason for replacement of C by K apart from say, something as lame as C and K sound same in some words, made me realise that K gains its uniqueness, its own niche among the chain of ‘old’ IIMs by virtue of the letter itself.
About 5 years back top business schools in India suddenly woke up to the fact that the gender diversity ratio in their graduating batches was quite poor. It was extremely rare to find more than 25% women in most of the top IIMs. However, things have taken a turn for the better and the number of women graduating not just from IIMs but schools across the board now is in thousands. While women representation in C-Suite and pay disparity at the top levels are issues which will still take many more years to be solved, we can celebrate the increase in number of women managers at the entry level in India. We should be hopeful and the IIMs and other top schools have done their bit.
The word MBA triggers a series of thoughts in my mind. A hectic two-year program with back to back classes, presentations, projects, tests, placements, committee work and there goes on the endless list.It enriches your personality, makes you strong enough to face the cut-throat competitive world outside, but what happens to the creative, artistic tinkling inside you?
Everything irrelevant becomes interesting during exams. During my first year at IIM Rohtak, I found a way to materialise the same in the form of some online entries regarding situations during the mid-terms for the class of 2018. The following parts begin with the kind of music that played in Hostel corridors between exams. The paragraphs below depict the grave frustrations the batch during the first ever mid-term they faced.
Holding my coffee mug, sipping my occasional caffeine requirement and comfortably sinking into my bean bag, when I look back at my recently bygone 3 months, it was undoubtedly a hell of a ride! From the lowest of lows to the highest of highs, from those depressing marks to the amusing lively parties, making way through classes and ‘I can’t keep a count’ number of meetings, juggling between the committee works with a special privilege for the Placecom, slipping into the formal shoes, being suit up and attending the mandatory sessions where actually anything and everything becomes mandatory, living through the gossips, soggy mumblings and igniting laughter of your friends over a cup of chai or any preferred drink - I have seen it all.
The dreams were realised when I entered the IIM Udaipur campus but magic happened when IIM U through its dual degree program made us cross 7 seas to reach The United States Of America. On a fine fall morning when you wake up and realise you were walking along lush green grass with colourful flowers in a brilliant harmony, fresh wind surrounding your thoughts and cultures of 180 countries greeting you, be very sure you are at Purdue University.
Irrelevant as it may sound, Tango’s got nothing to do with my article. However, my next three hundred words or so would revolve around the latter. The past three months, to be precise the first Trimester of my MBA Life, has taught me a lot of lessons. So here’s a glimpse into my first trimester at SBM, NMIMS Mumbai.
I remember I had updated my Facebook status as ‘Konverted’, after getting an admission to IIM Kozhikode merely for the swag. However, hailing from Kolkata (Calcutta), the ever-whining me always criticized using such misspelt words. Later, I found it was a frequent sight on Facebook, be it for the onward journey to ‘Kampus’ to being inducted as a ‘Komrade’. I could feel the martyr in me approaching a faster death as I was gradually journeying from a person who criticizes such acts to a person who thinks critically. Random introspection and exchange of thoughts to identify any plausible reason for replacement of C by K apart from say, something as lame as C and K sound same in some words, made me realise that K gains its uniqueness, its own niche among the chain of ‘old’ IIMs by virtue of the letter itself.
About 5 years back top business schools in India suddenly woke up to the fact that the gender diversity ratio in their graduating batches was quite poor. It was extremely rare to find more than 25% women in most of the top IIMs. However, things have taken a turn for the better and the number of women graduating not just from IIMs but schools across the board now is in thousands. While women representation in C-Suite and pay disparity at the top levels are issues which will still take many more years to be solved, we can celebrate the increase in number of women managers at the entry level in India. We should be hopeful and the IIMs and other top schools have done their bit.
The word MBA triggers a series of thoughts in my mind. A hectic two-year program with back to back classes, presentations, projects, tests, placements, committee work and there goes on the endless list.It enriches your personality, makes you strong enough to face the cut-throat competitive world outside, but what happens to the creative, artistic tinkling inside you?
Everything irrelevant becomes interesting during exams. During my first year at IIM Rohtak, I found a way to materialise the same in the form of some online entries regarding situations during the mid-terms for the class of 2018. The following parts begin with the kind of music that played in Hostel corridors between exams. The paragraphs below depict the grave frustrations the batch during the first ever mid-term they faced.
Holding my coffee mug, sipping my occasional caffeine requirement and comfortably sinking into my bean bag, when I look back at my recently bygone 3 months, it was undoubtedly a hell of a ride! From the lowest of lows to the highest of highs, from those depressing marks to the amusing lively parties, making way through classes and ‘I can’t keep a count’ number of meetings, juggling between the committee works with a special privilege for the Placecom, slipping into the formal shoes, being suit up and attending the mandatory sessions where actually anything and everything becomes mandatory, living through the gossips, soggy mumblings and igniting laughter of your friends over a cup of chai or any preferred drink - I have seen it all.
The dreams were realised when I entered the IIM Udaipur campus but magic happened when IIM U through its dual degree program made us cross 7 seas to reach The United States Of America. On a fine fall morning when you wake up and realise you were walking along lush green grass with colourful flowers in a brilliant harmony, fresh wind surrounding your thoughts and cultures of 180 countries greeting you, be very sure you are at Purdue University.
