Premier B-schools in India are known for their sprawling campuses, hefty fees and isolation from the world as we know it. There’s only one that stands out in this regard, Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi. With the entire city of Delhi as the campus and fees costing less than what a private school would charge in Mumbai, FMS is as unique as it gets when it comes to B-schools in India.
For better or worse, we have to face the harsh realities of living in a taxing city, have to arrange accommodations in places inundated with brokers- yes, our negotiation skills get honed early on! When your entire batch lives like one huge family in Kamla Nagar, you have a sense of belonging that can rival with the one professional sports teams have!
FMS is the only college that affords you the opportunity to really integrate with the city and its culture- from food to exploring pubs and clubs! You’re always running into seniors all around, and that has developed friendships that are sure to last more than a couple of years.
Studying in a place where your rest of the batch is just a staircase away has sure made us FMSites a closely knitted group and we can depend on each other as and when time arises. The interactions with seniors and faculties are frank and enlightening. The student-run society sessions are a blessing and their sessions have intensive learning which has been a different experience altogether. I especially love the Marketing Society’s sessions that throw light on the marketing practices,
3 weeks at FMS have been unlike anything else I have experienced, and I have had some thrilling ones. Every passing day here makes me confident about myself that I can get myself through any challenges life can throw at me, and I hope to continue my growth on that trajectory.
A memorable classroom experience in B-School
B-schools are known for their grinding beginning, in light of the summer placements that start shortly after admissions are finished. The most memorable and taxing part of that grind is the induction where we newbies are made to understand the expectations a manager generates in the industry and how they have to be met. For a week we were making presentations, getting grilled on them, understanding the basics of businesses, and we expected nothing else in the next week. That’s when the Cultural Society floated a task that was the tonic our tired brains needed! We had to perform a musical play for 6 minutes for our seniors. We took up the task with bubbling enthusiasm and got started with scripts, acts and songs that we would perform.
We came up with a niche theme- being so bad that it’s good, based on the recent popularity of cringe-worthy videos like Dhinchak Pooja and Taher Shah. We spun off a parody of these based on our experiences at FMS, giving them hilarious twists and relatable puns. Especially the part where we tweaked the lyrics of Dhinchak Pooja to show our hilarious struggles to keep up with the assignments and tasks was loved by the batch.
This fun event is quite memorable for me because that was my first day at FMS and it let me make a lot of friends and I got to know 10 of my batchmates intimately. The day will remain etched in my memory because I never expected a day like that in a B-School. That day I realized that people, especially my batchmates, were an integral part of my experience here and the friends I’ll make here were going to last for the rest of my life.
Introducing- My 4 Crazy Batchmates!
When I arrived at FMS, I expected to see a studious bunch of no-nonsense people that would be bothered only with bettering themselves and would be generally uptight. But I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of energy my batchmates had about everything, and how enthusiastic they were about their passions! So, here’s 4 of such stereotype-defying FMSites that I am lucky to know and lucky to be friends with!
1) Mohammad “Savage” Sabbah: If roasting people was an art, this guy would have been its Picasso. His deadpan, even- toned comebacks to innocuous conversations, aggressive insults or even to genuine compliments have led me to believe that it is good for me to only communicate with him in sign languages. I have mad respect for this guy, because coming up with witty one-liners is very tough. Having him not just like a batchmate but as a roommate, too, has been particularly engaging for us!
2) Sandeep “Senile” Khanna: The one person in the batch that is enthused with energy for a run after you had a particularly gruelling session with the Guest Lectures. He’ll come back home at night and will have the energy of a monkey, playing songs and dancing around, though that’ll fade out very fast. He’ll take the initiatives to do a lot of things, all of which are pending, but he won’t let that put a dampener on his enthusiasm. He is the first person I interacted with here at FMS and I am sure we both have a friendship that we will cherish for life!
3) Nigel “Noxious” Joe: There are some people who have a sense of humour so dark that you start wondering if they’re actually the devil’s incarnation, and Nigel is definitely one of them. If he’s sitting beside you, flicking through his phone and sniggering, be prepared for an embrace from the darkness when you ask him, “what’s up?”.
4) Aditya “Amazing” Bhale: When Aditya first expressed his interest in becoming my flatmate, I earmarked him as just another guy with generic attributes. I continue with that assumptions until his talents started cropping up slowly- a postgraduate in Tabla, a versatile singer, a debate enthusiast and I will end the list by “etc.” because I am sure more talents will eventually pop out off that guy! He won the Merchants of Delhi competition using these talents and sang for hours on end for that!
So, these are some of my batchmates that make me feel lucky to be a part of the FMS batch of 2020!
ABG Company I’d like to work with
I am a Metallurgical and Materials Engineer from IIT Roorkee and it is a subject I cherish a lot. Unfortunately, I am not able to leverage that knowledge in my current pursuits. That’s why I’d love to work with Hindalco industries limited in their distribution, marketing and sales divisions because I can harness my communication skills, analytical acumen as well as industry knowledge to deliver on the tasks. With continuous innovation in the automobile industry and expansion of manufacturing sectors in India, metals would be the growth drivers and I believe Hindalco would be at the helm of that and I would love to contribute for the same!
