Advent of B-school Journey........At NITIE

First day in god’s own campus officially known as NITIE. Returning to student life after a stint of 52 months in corporate culture was a bit queer. Sitting in a classroom again, awaiting a faculty instead of client or manager. It took a while for me to get acclimatized to this old yet 'new' situation of mine. To my surprise and relief the faculty was none other than Dr. T. Prasad famously known as Dr. Mandi in NITIE. On a personal note I had a desire to meet him after I saw a video of him during the GD-PI process.

    

The class began with Pink Floyd’s famous song “Another Brick in wall” and a thought struck me the first lecture couldn't have been better than this. The song has a meaning; it asks all the students not to be like an assembly line product and instead be someone unique and make an identity of your own in this competitive world.

Prof. then made us realize the cost of MBA as not only the fees but also including the emoluments which we won’t be getting anymore as we have quit the jobs we were having. So for me approximately Rs 17 Lacs is the opportunity cost. This cost comes to approximately Rs 2500 per day.

Prof Mandi went ahead to give the first ‘gurumantra’: “Aaj ki roti….Aaj hi kamayenge”. He asked us to earn as much as possible on a daily basis to cover the above mentioned daily opportunity cost. A million dollar teaching to become self-reliant.

We were then given few toys namely a couple of butterflies, a pair of rubber globes of the size of small ball, and a hen along with an inclined plank, on which it could oscillate as well slide down under the effect of omnipresent gravity. Baffled!! Are you on reading this……well I must admit I was myself not sure as to what Prof. was going to do with them. He then asked us for how much we can sell it. Well the reply was what must have popped in your mind Rs 50-60, that’s how much we think is the correct price for a toy. He then showed us the physical applications to which the toy could be used namely the butterfly could be used to demonstrate the Center of Gravity, Moment of Inertia, Rotational motion etc. Then we said we can sell it for Rs 500 even.

He imparted the second learning of the day, to think creatively. The second gurumantra was the famous jingle ‘Socho Becho, Becho Sikho, Sikho Socho’.

Prof also told us about the NITIE alumni who have created an identity of their own like Shreyas Srinivas who quit HUL to start ‘Level 10 Studios’, Mrunmay Chaturvedi who went on to become CEO of “Cyprus Semiconductors’ India Branch.

The idea to write this blog was also given by the same great soul, Prof Mandi. He has another altruistic view to share his priceless knowledge with the whole world via the blogs. This would help all those people, students who can’t come to NITIE. 

Keep looking for this space…………Loads of more experiences to come!!

Before ending this article, I will Leave you with a video of the NITIE campus from MTV Campus diaries.