Why did I come to IMT-Nagpur?

It has been over a year that I am here at IMT-Nagpur. Somewhere I feel that I should write what I think about this place, which is my home for past 1 year. Living in a residential institute is a one of a kind experience for me, a person who has never lived out of the home ever in her life.

When I decided to get admission in IMT-Nagpur, I left some of the ‘fairly good’ institutes under Mumbai University, which would have given me higher pay packages compared to IMT-Nagpur. Many people found the idea of going to a new institute, without any ranking and without any guarantee of placements, stupid. Some, who were oblivious to facts, were happy that I’m going to IMT, which is a renowned brand in the field of management education. But I had consciously opted for this institute. There were two reasons: first, being a resident of Mumbai and having friends everywhere, I exactly knew where the ‘fairly good’ institutes stand and second, I wanted to stay out of my home, my familiar circle of friends and relatives, and do something different. And it is different, what I’m doing at IMT-Nagpur right now; very different from what I have done staying at home and travelling 2-3 hours every day for going to the college and back home, being with my parents with a lot of restrictions imposed on me, asking their ‘permission’ even for small and silly things which I myself can take care of. Oh God! I really can’t imagine doing a management course and not doing it at IMT-Nagpur.

“Why so desperate to get out of home?” …this is the first question that would come to your mind while reading this, and many doubts to accompany the question. The answers are hidden in my educational history. I’m a person who was hyped as being ‘intelligent’ since school time. But I couldn’t score well in 10^th, and I must say, I disappointed my parents and teachers. When I thought of going for engineering, I decided to study a lot, and give my best shot to 12^th. I got good marks, got admission to RAIT, which had a very good ranking and good placements.

Coming from a typical middle class family, I couldn’t adjust to the RAIT culture in my 1^st year; couldn’t find any good friends; was afraid of ragging, which was excessive at that time; was lost in a world of diversity. Whatever the reasons, the fact is that engineering education was a downfall for me. I couldn’t clear my papers, in spite of understanding the concepts, couldn’t score well in the papers that I cleared and lost all the confidence in myself and my abilities. I should have gone to a psychologist, who would have helped, but nobody thought of doing it, because nobody knew what was going on in my mind. On the face of it, I was this shameless person, taking all the criticism on face, doing nothing about it; but inside, I was a person who had lost faith in everything, lost confidence in myself, the only thing giving me strength was the awareness of my intelligence. I had always been this bubbly cheerful person, very talkative and always in a group of friends. I was always vaguely aware of my abilities, my strengths and weaknesses, but never worked on them. I started sulking, stopped mixing with people, going to family functions and gatherings, having fun… basically I lost myself in those days. I couldn’t participate in any extra-curriculars also, because of the rules at my home: "If you study well, you can do whatever you want; but if you don’t, then... well… its better to stop everything else and start studying"… so I tried, and failed miserably…

Well, then I again tried, and could score some decent marks to make everyone feel that now I’m again on a right track, and finally could get a first class I my last year, with 60%, which was an achievement going by my situation… what I didn’t understand at that time was, this type of system was not suitable for me. I can’t just keep on reading textbooks and by hearting things out of them. I need some fun, masti, enjoyment in studies, where I can be creative.

When I decided to come to IMT-N, I was still in doubt as to what I am getting into… but with encouragement of some of my very good friends, I finally decided to take a call… and here I am… enjoying my life at IMT-Nagpur.

This place has given me a lot of things, most importantly, a chance to prove myself. I have not been able to do so many things at a time in my life before… maybe, because now I’m on my own, I can decide what I want to do for myself, how I’m going to do it and how much time I’ll b spending for it. I have got a chance to express myself here, as I never had got. Maybe, if I had gone to some institute with better ranking, I would have been in awe of the students, faculty, everybody and maybe, I wouldn’t have opened my mouth for anything. Here, I know if I raise my voice, someone is always there to listen to me, to support me, and that gives me my confidence back… boss, main bhi kuch kar sakti hoon! I have been a part of Corporate Communications Committee, participated in dramatics, started with KOSHISH, which is very close to my heart, tried to learn French, MS34 was a very good platform to get creative juices flowing… wow! This has been a roller-coaster ride!

I have learnt a lot here, including how to handle people, how to work with them, how to understand them, and most importantly, how not to trust everyone… I have made some pretty bad mistakes too, but again, this is life, and nobody is ideal. Who doesn’t make mistakes? Well, the one who doesn’t, doesn’t learn also. I think I have had lot of learnings here. I think I have made some good friends here, too and I’m hoping to continue being friends with them. I will write about them, later…

So… this is my story about coming to IMT-Nagpur… I will write more about the place in later parts…

Maximum City : Bombay lost & found

Born in Calcutta and lived in Bombay for 9 years of his childhood, Suketu Mehta hails from a family of Gujarati diamond merchants spread world over. The son of this ‘globalized family’; himself has stayed in several countries and is a full time writer. The time he spent in Bombay (he calls it Bombay, and not Mumbai) has been the most memorable time of his life. Hence, when he had the urge to go back to his roots, he came back to Bombay, and not Calcutta or Ahmedabad, where most of his family lived. He explored the Bombay, trying to take in the beauty of this crowded city which belongs to a slum dweller, a millionaire, a gangster and a clerk alike.

There has been much written earlier about Bombay, its roads, lanes, bylanes; the local trains, chawls, the bollywood, the underworld, the people and much more… But the way Suketu Mehta sees it, it goes beyond it all; he depicts the darker side of Bombay, which is much more human than we can imagine. The man has a huge amount of curiosity and a greater understanding of human nature, which makes you realize certain facts and think about your own lives with a broader picture of LIFE at the background.

The book is divided into 3 parts: Power, Pleasure and Passages. Each of these portrays a different side of Bombay.

The Power part is devoted to the ultimate powers of Bombay: Shiv Sena (Bal Thackeray), the police (encounter specialists) and of course, the ultimate Underworld. Suketu is incredible when he meets Shiv Sena workers in slums, then the shooters of the underworld, the brave inspector Ajay Lal, then Bal Thackeray himself and talks to Chhota Shakeel-the Don on phone. On the way he also stops at the mini-Pakistan, Madanpura and gives us insights about people’s lives there. He doesn’t stop there; he becomes a part of the script-writing team of the movie Mission Kashmir and gives some vital information about the famous Bollywood-Underworld linkages. With his illustrative language, he captures the attention of the reader, and creates a web where all these lives are entangled with a giant spider of uncertainty of human life looming over their heads.

Bombay is a maya nagari as they say- it is a land of Pleasure, with Golpitha (the red light areas), the bars and bar dancers, the mujrewaalis and Bollywood strugglers. Suketu meets these all, becomes the best friend of a bar dancer, who shares her life and dreams with him. There is also a male bar dancer who dresses like a girl, and is the main crowd puller at the Sapphire bar. Who would believe that this person is not a eunuch, not a gay, but is a lower middle class married man with a wife at home who helps him ‘get ready for the night’! Then there is a bollywood struggler who finally gets a break in a B grade film. Suketu gets close and personal with all of them, and creates a collage out of unseen faces, unknown lives, and unrevealed passions.

In Passages, he walks down the memory mines, in his school days, and the changing cultures in Bombay. He also meets and helps a struggling poet, come all the way from Bihar, to recite his poems to the elite classes and masses of Bombay alike. The section ends with a chapter in Jainism, where he portrays a family of a billionaire Diamond Merchant in Bombay, husband, wife and 3 teenager kids, gets diksha and become sanyasis to attain moksha. He describes all the rituals and gets a few questions answered from the swami maharaj about their routine, their reasons and their lives. In this part of the book he is caught between the two lives of the merchant, one with pleasures, other with a path to salvation; and wonders what makes people leave all behind and follow the rituals, which sound somewhat illogical in today’s world.

The way Suketu Mehta writes about so many lives is sometimes satirical, sometimes sympathetic, sometimes with awe, sometimes with disgust, sometimes with his own opinions about them; but what arrests the readers’ attention is that he never forgets that these are humans; be it a gangster or a bar girl or a diamond merchant. That understanding gives a greater dimension to his observations and he makes you think about your Bombay. Every resident of Bombay sees the city differently, it means a lot to him/her; but to each, it means something different. Suketu gives you a roller-coaster ride of the city of hope, which is an agglomeration of individual dreams, a mass dream of the crowd…

What is your dream? What is Bombay to you?