It has been exactly a month since I started my MBA and my world has turned upside down. I have been studying Microeconomics, Financial Accounting and Strategic Management. As I write this, I am done with the midterm exams for the first two and gearing up to take SM midterm this weekend.
The chilly breeze and slight drizzle on my face while riding to IIMB every week is the one thing I cherish the most. The ambiance and the stone structures of IIM are awe inspiring; I remember the day I went for interview and sat in the auditorium for Convergenz and wishfully thought it would be a dream come true to study at this wonderful place. The professors are great and very knowledgeable. Phrases like 'competitive advantage', 'leveraging strengths','economies of scope' have started making sense(finally!!) and have become a part of my lingo. To think of it, when people used to effortlessly drop these phrases, I used to wonder how smart they were and what those words possibly meant :-D
Wonderful it surely is, but I must also mention the other side of the story, which relates to life being 'upside down'. Since we don't stay in hostel, has contributed to hilarious incidents. The first week itself, my group members-me included, thinking that we need to make presentation in strategy class, struggled to find time to prepare the case study, met on yahoo messenger and gtalk to discuss the case and then connected to each other through conference calls, only to find out on Thursday night that we should have analysed the case from Porter's five forces angle and then stayed awake till late into the night and got to the class next day half awake. To top it all, we found out on Friday morning that we were not required to do any presentation, but we had to prepare accounting cases, not strategy!! If this was the case with strategy, midterms were all googlies and bouncers. And now, I am sitting on 3 assignments to be submitted in a month's time. Reminds me of my JNV days!!
My life has changed drastically and I guess it will be the norm for the next 2.5 years. I decline all invites for shopping(!!), have been deferring going to all my friends' places, my family considers me absent for all important chores. I do all transactions only online and my nap time while traveling to office has turned into my study time(which I regret the most)...
In the mean time, class of 2009 arranged Pehel on 12th July 2009 and had a blast arranging and participating in it. The journey so far has been amazing. So much of knowledge packed sessions every week, interacting with classmates twice a week and so many seminars on various topics, involving the industry experts and IIMB faculties, make all the efforts worthwhile. I now vouch for the fact - 'No pain, no gain'!
