IIM Nagpur, apart from its regular academics and domain-specific activities by academic clubs, has a significant proportion of activities on campus that’s meant for building a cultural legacy, celebrating life, contribution to society and much more. This article is dedicated towards highlighting the work of a few of those non academic clubs, with a focus on how we give it back to society, how sports facilities on campus refreshes the PGP candidates after a rigorous day in class, and most importantly how a dedicated team ensures that you get the best food so that studies, sports and all other work never witness a stop.
Ummeed- The Community Outreach Club of IIM Nagpur works with the vision of encapsulating our responsibility towards the society and our goals in life under one thread, ‘Togetherness’. A team of eight PGP students inclusive of PGP 1 and PGP 2 batch works effortlessly throughout the year to conduct events such as ‘Joy of giving’, ‘Donation drive’, ‘Make a wish’, ‘Celebrating womanhood on woman’s day by organising several competitions’, ‘Swacchta drives’, ‘Flashmobs’ and much more. These events have been the core activities that Team Ummeed has been organising ever since its inception. To welcome the incoming PGP 2019-21 batch in July 2019, the club is looking forward to bring several new initiatives so as to inspire the minds of people on how as educated individuals we can give things back to society.
Childhood is the time for children to be in school and at play, to grow strong and confident with the love and encouragement of their family. But not all children are lucky enough to have these privileges. So, Team Ummeed, along with the volunteers shared this love and spent time with some of those children. This initiative introduced frequent NGO Visits in the last couple of years. One of those visits in 2018 was at Bal Sadan, an NGO for children. Some key takeaways from the visit were - be curious, stay happy with whatever you have, live life to the fullest, dream big, teamwork and coordination are the key to success along with regular feedback in life that plays a vital role.
Sports Club of IIM Nagpur is highly proactive when it comes to organising events in sports that could build one’s character and prepare one for life. All those who have played and followed sports passionately can relate to this statement. Working for the sports club also infuses a whole array of managerial capabilities among its members and so on campus, PGP candidates are quite eager to join this particular non-academic club. The good thing about being in a student-driven college is that you have the power to set the culture & raise the bar for the upcoming batches while the reverse being equally true. As a team, sports club members have done a significant job in the last one year so as to provide a source of enjoyment to refresh the minds amidst the hectic schedule of an IIM.
Talking about their events, ‘Rhapsody’, is popularly known as the Olympics of IIM Nagpur. It is an intra-college tournament with the students divided into 4 teams namely Cholas, Pandyas, Nandas and Mauryas paying homage to the great kingdoms of Indian History. The event runs throughout the year and is not restricted to a month or two; this ensures that the passion & emotions are high among the students for their respective teams throughout the year. The sheer scale of the event, scheduling the matches in between the classes and sticking to timelines makes PGP students spend many sleepless nights. Even as a part of 'Tangerine Trails', IIM Nagpur’s online management fest, the Sports Club we conducted a National event named “Clutch Zone”, the pilot online sports fest.
Having already laid a solid foundation over the first five years, the road ahead is filled with many exciting opportunities to strengthen IIM Nagpur’s capabilities. The sports club at IIM N hopes to welcome more energetic members and PGP admits in the incoming batch.
Mess Committee at IIM Nagpur, the name in itself talks about what they do and how important it must be. You study hard, play harder, work harder, but eventually, all these could happen effectively and efficiently only when you get the best food on campus. In fact, the role of the Mess committee members are highly managerial in nature and has a lot of applications from what a B-School student learns in the classroom, to name a few areas such as customer satisfaction, operations and supply chain.
Addressing grievances of the student body, faculty and staff, coordinating between them and the mess staff, planning the menu for the upcoming month and organising special dinners on the occasion of festivals keep this team on foot on a daily basis. The mess on campus at IIM Nagpur has a plethora of options with no limit on the quantity you consume (that's true) and all these are at a very reasonable cost. The regular menu comprises of chicken, paneer, dosa, idli, upma, poha, eggs (boiled, fried, omelette), chole bhature, rajma, green vegetables, gulab jamun, jalebi, kheer/payasam, fortnightly biryani and Chinese comprising chilli chicken, chilli paneer, Manchurian, fried rice, noodles and more. Evening snacks are usually from these delicacies, namely samosas, pav bhaji, uttapam, noodles, pakode, bhel puri, etc.
The night canteen on campus runs from 11 PM onward till 2-3 AM. It has attractive options to keep you satiated during your case preparations and project discussions. The options include grilled vegetable/chicken sandwiches, vegetarian/egg/chicken fried rice, french toast and french fries among many others. Some of the night canteen menu options are also available throughout the day, just in case, some of us would like to have something hatke from the usual lunch, snacks and dinner.
To talk of something managerial, because this article somewhere talks about a B-school, addressing grievances involves the substantial application of the knowledge students’ gain in their HR classes. From theories on motivation and perseverance to negotiation, this team needs to practically apply every concept in keeping everyone (consumers) and providers (mess staff) happy and satisfied. Concepts learnt in our Marketing and Strategy lectures, too, come in handy. For instance, to convince students with a lavish menu to avail the mess services when special dinners are organized instead of ordering food from outside.
Needless to say, managing four meals for seven days a week with ‘special’ Sundays and festivals/events oriented food to cater to different taste palates and preferences; this is indeed an interesting but challenging task. However, on the brighter side, it does teach one to be patient, good listeners, administrators and organisers, to say the least. And for many alumni, who were a part of the Mess Committee, this role actually becomes a very unique and interesting talking point during interviews.
Well, this is not over yet. This article talked only about three non-academic clubs at IIM Nagpur. Going ahead, brief write-ups on other non-academic clubs will also be published.
As of now, IIM Nagpur fraternity looks forward to welcoming the incoming batch in July 2019. Cheers!
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