SIBM Pune Batch 2020
What is the most varied species on Earth? The most colorful yet dark subject to study? Yes. It’s us. People. We come with qualities unique and interesting. You could meet a person today and feel a connection immediately or it could take you decades to understand another. We come with baggage and past, insecurities and fear, masks and layers. They make us, sometimes the most vulnerable, and sometimes the most impenetrable subject to read. And reading, is what I came to do here. Books and people. Meet a new batch, read them, understand them, learn more about how we are as a species. It has been less than 4 weeks here, at SIBM Pune Hilltop campus, and the variety of faces and characters I have encountered already enthralls me.
What exactly is ‘crazy’? ‘Mad’, ‘extremely enthusiastic’ are Google’s answer. Well all of us were mad enough to voluntarily sign up for the crazy MBA life. But I believe, everyone is ‘crazy’, ‘abnormal’, ‘special’ in their own way. One just has to notice the crevice and find the gleam. So I will go about telling about some of the crazy, rather interesting characters from my batch, that I befriended, noticed, and enjoyed meeting.
So I would start with one of my closest friend, Kashika Singh, the introverted genius, from Punjab. The day I met her, it was the usual MBA ‘Hi…’, the one I was still struggling to master. So did she, I guess. But her smile was pure. One day, while reading Economic Times, she happened to explain me a few terms. I was surprised. How did she know so much? But that was just the tip of the ice berg. From World War II to Iran-USA current relation, she could go on with facts and figures for long hours at stretch. And her eyes were the happiest when she shared knowledge. I discovered her knack for human reading while talking to her about a show ‘House MD’. ‘You like reading people?’, she asked. I hesitantly agreed. ‘Knew it’, she said and life at campus has been easier since we meet every day to discuss what we learnt about our batchmates. ‘Crazy’ I thought to myself. But she is a hidden gem. She would not let anyone know she knew so much. She would sit quietly, not making small talk, reading something or the other. A crazy human encyclopaedia might just be sitting quietly at the dinner table beside you, and you would think, she is too self-absorbed to talk.
Then came a batchmate who I didn’t really befriend but interests soon got us together. Rigzin Deldan, from Kashmir is a philosophy student who plays the Ukulele and flute. Being from an engineering background, I always felt like I missed out on the human behavioral subjects theoretically. When I heard his introduction, I wanted to go up to him and inquire a little more. He seemed to be different from others. He definitely was. On our trekking experience during our first outbound trip, Rigzin played his Ukulele to a tired batch of 200, 7AM in the morning, at the top of a hill, taught us to feel the music, the air and delve deeper in ourselves to find the peace. We were very different yet very similar in some ways. Searching for peace. We bonded after he watched me play the keyboard. He came up to me with plans of having a jamming session with his flute and my keyboard. Song? Game of Thrones Track! Ask anyone about Rigzin, and they would know but I wondered whether anybody really knew him. We were having a group conversation one night and he happened to say ‘Banerjee, you see this. It’s a mask’, gesturing a layer over his face. I knew I had befriended the right person. Yes he is crazy to others, always carrying his ukulele, everywhere he goes, smiling and socializing. But there’s much more to read. And I’m sure it will be crazier.
Did you know we have an embryologist in our batch? Kalyani P from Chennai. The first day I heard her introduction, I sat there for a while trying to deduce her thought pattern to take up that career or even leave it for MBA. ‘Wow. That’s new’, I thought. It was like an untrodden path in my world of BTechs and MBBS. She is a quiet gentle girl, really helpful and compromising if need be. I think it has something to do with the fact that she dealt with embryos and babies. But she sits in class, like a sane person, not being part of the conventional crazy crowd. But Embryologist! You are going to be an interesting book to read!
I befriended this young guy, with very little work experience, on my very first day, during the ice breaking session, Ishan Sunia, from Delhi. First impression, comfortable and funny. Last impression, still comfortable and funny. A certified extrovert, someone usually found around girls. He won’t let anyone eat alone. He will call you, ping you, track you down in this vast campus, just so that you are not having dinner alone. ‘But I love having my meals alone, sometimes’, I said one day. ‘Well as long as I can’t master that art of eating alone, I am not letting anyone eat alone. I’m not letting you enjoy the solitude’, he replied. That left me wondering whether he has stories dug inside too. He has grown up living in Russia and Netherlands, but no one knows. He probably had a heart break, sometime in the near past, but again, no one knows. He likes someone on campus, no one knows. Everyone knows him as the extrovert, always seen outside, networking. But he seems like a mixture of helpful and helpless to me. He is always there for people, giving them company, but somewhere he seems to seek others’ company to avoid being in his own.
I have met many more crazy or in my words, interesting batchmates here. To trust or not to trust, is the question. But I am just at Page 2 of their book of life. It’s going to be a 2 years long read and I still might not be able to cover the entire batch. Each one seems to be special in their own way, once you find that ‘way’. That’s the best thing about people. I will never be bored of reading them. And they will never fail to surprise me.
Which ABG company would you want to work for and why?
The brand positioning of the name Aditya Birla creates a sense of belonging and pride. As an MBA aspirant pursuing marketing, and a person who has an interest to follow fashion trends, I have an affinity towards the Branded Apparel Sector of ABG. Having an underlying love for art with an overlying profile of engineering and MBA, I believe my interests would align working in a creatively stimulant line of work. Market Research for this sector would be less of work and more of an experience about people. Allen Solly among them, boasts of a pet-friendly office culture in its creative ad which is an added incentive.
Ishita Banerjee,
Marketing, SIBM Pune
