WOW….. MBA 1st YEAR OVER!!!!!!!!.What an eventful year it has been. How quickly the time flies. It seems like time is like a figure 8; at its center the city of Déjà vu.In the middle of 3 trim exams, there was a constant whirlpool of 1ST year memories going on in my head. I just couldn’t stop thinking about the whole of 1st year in college. Tried too hard. But just cudn’t stop thinking about it. I guess the reason was that in matter of 3-4 days I was going to be separated from my college, my class ( CAPITAL MARKET) and my friends (all my class mates) for 3 whole months. I cannot find words to express how NMIMS & Capital Market has brought about a transformation in my life. Transformation from being a negative, cynical & under-confident individual to a cool ( I’d like to believe I am), positive, confident and an amicable person. 99% of this transformation can just be purely attributed to my friends ( All 29 shareholders of CAP MKT, me being the 30th.I just think of my class as a company and the students of this class as stake-holders.).These guys have brought a sense of calmness , patience,pragmatism and a new sense of understanding that has created the new level of living I now enjoy. Every time VEER, SARAF & the rest of the class chant that word “CR” ( which has more or else become synonymous with my name), it restores my lost confidence.
I still have vivid and distinct memories of my first day in college. Having obtained late admission and having missed the first few lectures of the orientation I was so damn worried about the lectures that I had missed. I had heard so many myths about how each and every lecture in MBA is so important and how you cannot afford to miss them. Anyways so with that tension in my head and butterflies in my stomach I lay my foot in the UPG building sharp at 8:15, exactly 45 minutes before the lecture timing. I thought I’ll try and get acquainted to the new surrounding and try and make some friends. Secondly, I also had this MBA-Professionalism concept in my head so I thought of making a first good impression. Anyways, it turned out that there was only 1 person who had the same sense of timing as mine and probably believed in the same MBA thoughts that I had and so was present in the class when I entered room no. 805. She is my Co-Sagittarean friend , the Jharkhand girl – SHRUTI. Well I have this habit of Arnold ( in Terminator movie) like profiling which happens in my head when I meet a stranger. So when I saw her data started loading in my head and I developed her profile even before exchanging the first words.Data:Age-20,Sex-female, Graduation- Commerce student etc. She was talking on the phone ( such a common habit shared by all the girls) and so when I entered she disconnected her phone and introduced herself. “ Hi, Shruti. Fresher?.” After hearing that I added one more attribute to her profile-FRESHER. We spoke about our MBA calls, NMAT score, hometown etc. And then entered another prominent figure of my class. Mera DOST, mera Gujju bhai BHAVYA. He had this unusual bundle of energy so early in the morning and just couldn’t stop laughing at Shruti’s jokes ,which just wasn’t enticing a laughter from my side. Probably boys and girls have different sense of humour. But then Bhavya was laughing which caused self-doubt in me about my sense of humour. Slowly, as the clock ticked and reached the 90 degree 9 o’clock figure, students started coming. Then came one of the best professors we’ve had- Prof.Kachwalla. I told him I had just joined the course today and so he told Bhavya who was the deemed CR at that point of time to provide me with all his notes.
The lecture began and Kachwalla Sir started teaching the usual stuff- mean, median, mode etc. which I had been learning since ages in my engineering and CAT preparation days. So , I didn’t bother to concentrate. I rather looked around and saw the faces of my classmates. Actually, I had visited most of their orkut profiles. So, as other guys would have done , I started with girls. Took a head-count of the girls. JUST 3!!!!.And I always thought atleast this would be the department where NMIMS would beat the IIMS. Anyways, the other two girls were SUGANDHA and SONEL. Both were in black. Sugandha had this hairstyle which was common amongst women in the Victorian era. Her bunch of hair in the front was at a raised level. Sonel’s friend on her Orkut profile had described her as Miss India. She definitely has the height of a Miss India participant. Then as I started looking around I saw SACHIT ( most active NMIMS student on PAGALGUY) , NITIN a.k.a BABA( in his black tshirt), SANJAY ( who was constantly giggling throughout the first half of the lecture).In the break I tried and introduced myself to more classmates. Sanjay and gang had formed a circle in the lobby area and were discussing about their last nights drive on Bandra-Worli sea-link. For most of the break-period I stuck to Bhavya I guess I feel a sense of comfort around Gujjus and can associate with them quickly. Post lecture another member ( & a good dancer) joined the class proceedings. ADITI : another 20-21 year old with a commerce background. And as she entered I increased the count to 4. She went & sat in her already formed group of IPS ( I’ve never seen such a colorful Sardar. He has the most bright clothes and turbans in his wardrobe) , Pratik Saraf ( He was wearing a blue t-shirt and had an imperfect mow-hawk hairstyle ) and another guy who later joined Jamnalal Bajaj. In the lecture I tried presenting a confident self by giving some answers but to my dismay , Kachwala didn’t approve of any. He wanted exact definition with no missing words ( very typical Parsi trait).
So, finally after 3 hours the lecture ended at 12 and Mr. Kachwalla gave us some home assignments which again Bhavya accepted with full enthusiasm. I along with Bhavya went to the old building to meet the Co-ordinator- TULSI MAM- (Another important person in Capital Market. Hope to see her soon in 4 trim) to complete the formalities. She asked Bhavya to accept the responsibities of a CR which Bhavya refused stating personal reasons. Then very casually he told me “ Nishit why don’t you become the CR”. Whoah!!!! He was telling this to someone who couldn’t even manage his own life properly and had never accepted any form of responsibities. Even I came up with excuses of being new in college & that I don’t know anyone. TULSI Mam said that by the end of 1st year all of you’ll will be like one family ( SO TRUE).After completing the formalities I left college with mixed feelings about the college,classmates, administration etc. and ended my FIRST DAY IN COLLEGE and simultaneously began a new chapter in my life, the life I was going to spend buried in books cramming to meet deadlines and running to class, late as ever.
