It's been a month and half into the PGPX program and I feel like I have been studying for the last year and half. I have taken in more information than what I have collectively gathered in the last year or even more. The information flow started the day I landed here - understanding the backgrounds and achievements of other PGPX students. I was excited to be part of such a rich group which could possibly stimulate me intellectually for the next year and further.
But during the first few days called the "Induction" period, the Professors brought us down to ground zero - made us realize that we knew nothing. (At least that's what I felt) This feeling is what I thought makes IIMA special.
Many other blogs may have been written about IIMA's style of teaching. I thought the teaching style was interesting because the faculty tries to bring in knowledge from all walks of life - from philosophy to science, nature, history, politics to economics to regular management jargon. This is what excited me. At this stage in my life, I like my teachers to be knowledge givers and not just technical experts. The Professors bring in doctrines from ancient Chinese, Egyptian and Indian texts along with modern (Western) schools of thought, Japanese/American/European business models. Having attended a few sessions at Duke, Wharton and NYU during my MBA application process, I find this aspect of IIMA differentiating. IIMA is actually drawing wisdom from our rich past. India at one point in history was the knowledge leader of the world and I feel like am back into history – as though am a student attending one of the prestigious universities at Nalanda or Taxila.
The academic vigor is not for the weak. This is a program for all masochists out there. Even though we all whine about the workload, on an average (Prof. Laha has taught us about the fallacies of averaging. Now I can’t even use that word in layman’s terms) people enjoy the amount of knowledge they are acquiring. 10 subjects in 2 months!! During my graduate studies in the U.S., the maximum I studied was 5 subjects in 1 sem. (a sem extended for 4 months) I dreaded this aspect before coming here. Now I can’t believe I am actually doing it and not yet had a nervous breakdown. Prof. Gandhi, I believe once mentioned about the danger of a high energy and talented group of individuals being left idle. This is possibly the reason why they load us up with so much work to drain out the last unit of energy. I get the satisfaction that my limits are being stretched beyond what I have stretched before.
I am currently going through a very comfortable quagmire of confusion – what electives to take, what career path to choose, what industry to choose, along with exploring my own strengths and weaknesses (OB classes helped a lot in this matter). OB class personality tests revealed that there is 25% of me that I don’t know yet!! Who knows maybe all the natural strengths I need for my future career lies in that 25% blind spot.
I have reached a point where when I doze off for a millisecond in front of my books, that millisecond where I lose control of my consciousness, a mixture of thoughts come into play - my Bertrand oligopoly model gets mixed up with value positioning, CPM, and activity based cost accounting....and suddenly I wake up and wonder..What the heck??!! Did I just get cross-wired?? This I have to admit, am experiencing for the first time in my life…probably my brain is going through a real workout.
Even though I am desperately craving for sleep, I am enjoying every bit of what I am doing here..and I humbly admit that so far this is the best education I have ever experienced.
