First lesson learnt at NITIE

Okay so finally after the long wait here i was dressing myself for my first day at NITIE. Since it was the first day i thought it would be a good idea to take a bath before attending the class.  I had mixed feelings in my heart. All that excitement of college life, friends and girls was overwhelming but yes, i admit there was a bit of fear also since it was the first class after a long time. People had been telling me MBA is nothing like chilled out life of engineering and we are really pushed to our limits in an MBA institute. With such thoughts in my mind i climbed those dreaded ninety six stairs.

I was sitting in the class waiting eagerly to see my professor's face when i saw a man wearing a royal blue check shirt and carrying a fancy bag entering into the classroom. I somehow recognized the man immediately but could not relate where i had seen him, when suddenly he spoke and it hit me that he is Professor Mandi whom i saw in VJ Jose's show Campus Diaries. Luckily or as per God's plan Prof. Mandi was filling in for our Communication prof's absence. He handed over some props for us to play with. I cannot recall anyone telling me that they actually played with Globe printed rubber balls and pink bird toys apart from my nursery going cousins. So much for my fears! Till now i saw professors who have fun ways of teaching in movies only but now Dr. T. Prasad aka Prof. Mandi was right there in front of me explaining forgotten physics concepts of center of gravity, magnetism and inertia through stress balls, pink butterfly toys and an oscillating hen on an inclined wooden plank.

Prof. Mandi emphasized the need for sharing of knowledge. Around only 15 % of Indian youth are privileged enough to go for higher education. What about the others? The answer is sharing of the knowledge one learns and what better way to do it other than writing blogs. If education is not that much penetrable in Indian society at least Internet is, through technologies like Project- loon by Google.  So if the entire IM batch wrote blogs there would be some point when whatever is taught in NITIE is covered in these blogs and we don’t need so much over hyped B-Schools for learning our management lessons.

Prof. Mandi also gave us shocking figures of how much we are spending each day while pursuing MBA. The figure worked up to be as high as Rs 2500 /- per day. He emphasized that even if we are able to earn at least 10 % of this amount then we will not be called beggars and will live up to his famous quote :

Aaj ka roti..Aaj hee kamaenghe ! (Earn today's meal today)

 

Even if i am not sure in my mind how i am going to achieve this, but still i have made up my mind that i will to an extent earn whatever i spend during these two years , in NITIE itself.

 

'Socho Becho, Becho Sikho, Sikho Socho' 

 

With the above slogan Prof. Mandi introduced the annual event, Mandi. Mandi is an annual event organized by NITIE in which students sell toys into the real market. Mandi is the brainchild of Dr. T Prasad.

Prof. Mandi also inspired us by telling how many alumni of NITIE were able to make a place for them in the industry by starting their unique enterprises. 

In the second half the actual POM class happened and what a class it was! A song that i only listened in lounges was sung in our classroom. The song was  'Brick in the wall'  by Pink Floyd. Apart from the lovely music the song had a beautiful meaning attached to it. The entire class sang in unison. The day just couldn't get any better than this!  According to Prof. Mandi the song is a strike on the education system in the world. Day in and Day out just bricks are added to a wall but no one is building a new wall. How can a teacher decide what should we study or do later in life. No thought control in required and for free thinking to develop teachers have to leave them kids alone and let them follow their dreams and aspirations. 

I purchased a new classmate register for the class but didn't get a chance to stain it because for the first time in my life i was learning which requires no paper or pen. 

Hopefully i have covered everything Prof. Mandi taught. More on Principles on Organizations Management in subsequent posts. Hope you all liked the post. Feedbacks and / or suggestions are always welcome. 

Cheers, 

Ankush