Sunday, March 22, 2015

WIMWI Sentiyapa - Chapter Two

PGP1

My IIM A journey started with the customary orientation at Ravi J Matthai (RJM) auditorium along with my fellow batchmates. Every minute that I spent in that auditorium was a beautiful reminder that I have actually made it into Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (yes, writing it in full brings a better impact). It was overwhelming and exciting at the same point to sit with a bunch of 400 people listening to the best management faculty in this part of the world. If I remember one thing distinctly from that orientation, it was this statement by Warden, Prof Sunil Sharma – “Welcome to commando training!”

PGP1s (first year) are hectic across all the bschools in India. We at IIM A believe that the PGP1 at IIM A is something special. It is surely the most strenuous amongst all Indian bschools. Through a maze of cases, assignments, classes and the dreadful quizzes, a first year IIM A student is taken through a wide variety of management courses in a very short duration. PGP1 teaches that there is never enough time nor enough data to take a decision. And you still need to make one. For the majority of us who are engineers, it was a challenge to move beyond solving well defined problems and dealing with ambiguity. PGP1 inspires one to push the physical and mental constraints that we tend to put on ourselves. It was a time when ALL of us had our own personal battles to fight. It felt like a warzone with all of us fighting it out together.

Despite being an extremely rigorous year, we do not have ill feelings about it. PGP Office and the entire faculty team took care in ensuring that the pain is evenly distributed and there were rarely any time when I felt that the pressure applied was more than bearable. And this is precisely what makes PGP1 at IIM Ahmedabad special. It is the institution’s ability to create the environment which pushes people but never lets them fall down. A fine balance.


PGP1 is like a roller coaster ride. You may stare at it from far. You may heard about it from alumni. You may read blogs like these. But the only way you can understand the thrill of going through PGP1, just like a roller coaster ride, is by actually riding it. 

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