Half-Way Mark Through PGPX - Enticing Journey

Feels like just few moments have passed, time has rushed, clock ticked at the speed of light and I breadth 1000 times a second but the reality is I along with 84 other diverse, wonderful, enigmatic, charismatic, energetic and all .....tics type of people have spent 6 months time at PGPX, IIM Ahmedabad. Frankly the decision to come back to India, decision to pursue MBA and that too one year MBA was convoluted, confusing and complex. But we took the plunge !! and rode the wave to finish 3 terms and currently swimming hard to reach the end of term 4 with so many things going around. 

I still remember and I can feel the butterflies in the stomach when I went for the interview and faced these three friendly but the same time serious and hard interviewers. I never knew a very humble and smiley faced Prof. Shailesh Gandhi can be so tough in the class, however I will never forget the building blocks of Balance Sheet and Income statements just because of him. He taught so well and so clearly that a NON CA like me can at least now talk some of the terminologies of financial accounting world. I still remember the excitement when I got the admission and then the nerve bending and mind boggling tasks to wrap up in USA and come back to India. I enjoyed 1 month honeymoon period at my previous employer and I can never forget the joy of air and freedom of speech during those days :). But wrapping up, selling everything and then landing at Ahmedabad was daunting and tiring.

Term I started with a bang, the first ever result of a quiz came out and many of us got the shock of the life by looking at our grades, most of us were studying after 9-10 years gap and most of us probably forgot how to write using a PEN :) but we managed and we learnt. Gradually as Term I progressed we met and understood our syndicate mates. We fought, we laughed, we inquired, we pestered but we managed to get through all the courses. Prof. Saral Mukherjee taught us Operations Management and his style and aura of teaching with his punch lines and his analogies will remain in my and my batch-mates mind forever. I will never forget the analogy of Toyota to a Cheetah and Boeing to an Elephant. Communication skills and Organization behavior courses really opened up the understanding of the business organization and lead us through a enticing journey of self evaluations.

By Term II we were well versed the case based pedagogy style of learning and also the stress of getting good Grades subsided and the focus was more on learning, knowing each other and also an upcoming important competition - The Talent Nite (Intra IIM-A talent fest) - Talent nite was an exciting, creative and challenging journey for the entire batch. PGPX had never won this against PGP and few other programs plus the load of studies, assignments, other extra curricular activities made things tough. We learnt a lot about how under stress even the close friends can end up challenging each other and get broiled into a fight but that learning was very important to understand the dynamics of the batch. It was grueling 3 weeks efforts but I am more than PROUD to say that PGPX won the competition and created History. I still cannot forget the dance 3 of us did on Bedardi Raja :) wearing Ghaghra's :)

Term III - International Immersion program (ESCP at Paris, France) was superb, a fun filled trip to Europe (I went to Switzerland and people visited mix of Rome, Italy, Amsterdam, etc.) 2 weeks of this program taught us design thinking, working in Europe, business style of Parisian, and luxury brand management. Few of batch mates went to CUHK, HongKong and one group to Warwick UK. I think all the three groups learned and enjoyed their 2 weeks program to the fullest. We all came back to the campus pretty satisfied and rejuvenated. We continued to play sports and other extra curricular activities.

Current term is critical because as soon we came back we started with our elective courses and few core subjects as well. Elective listing was a tough decision and choosing the course that best suits your long term goal is most complex and time consuming process. However before even the study mode settles in our placement season started and people got busy building resumes, thinking about companies and job descriptions, understanding whether they are taking the right course for there life or not, etc. etc. A new wave of group formation is taking place to work on case challenges, business ideas, case in point discussions and mock interviews. Looking at the economy and positive sentiment after the election of Mr. Narendra Modi, we feel that this batch should end up creating another history in terms of placements. But keeping that aside for sometime and thinking more of what we have gained in this 6 months - I can come up with so many points we don't correlated directly with jobs - soft skills such as communication, interaction, perspective - leadership and the nuance of a being a leader - friendship - knowing 84 gems - building network - growing self confidence - branding as an IIM-Aite - learning time management and time mismanagement :) - building clay models to painting using crayons - learning a bit of French to understanding how luxury management works - countless things..........

I would like to thank all the 84 batch mates, all the amazing professors (Shailesh Gandhi, Saral Mukerjhee, Deepti Bhatnagar, Asha Kaul, Arvind Sahay, Prem Chander, Shailendra Mehta, Krishnesh Mehta, Anurag Agrawal, P. K. Sinha, and many many more.

I cannot end this post without thanking my wife, who has to manage my 13 month old son VInmay and bear with my timings and stringent schedule ---- with me being rarely present in the apartment as I have to spend most of the time in syndicate room studying. But I know both of our sacrifices will pay off soon. Thanks to KASH I am gaining from this program PGPX.