Saturday, February 12, 2005

Well here I am sitting at my office reporting from Gurgaon, the land of call centres, malls and low-rent housing ( relatively speaking ). Project has started off, which is going fine save for the problem that I have to travel all the way to Okhla in Delhi to work. This means spending 3 hours each day in a rickety bus ( DTC buses- the less said about them the better).

On the upside, I really dont have to worry too much about food like I used in NITIE. I can dig into all the junk food I want to here in Gurgaon and there are plenty of options available.

Switching over to a different topic, this is the time when most students who have given CAT are researching their B-school options at a more granular level, trying to find out as much as they can about potential B-schools they have applied to ( especially unofficial info about the school which you do not find on the official websites ). I know I did. Some talk to alumni, some prefer the grapewine but smart people use Google( and of course talk to alumni).And if some did use google to find out abt NITIE, I'm guessing my blog would show up on the Google listings.

And so I figured I'd do my part and post a brief round up about NITIE, Mumbai.

Life@NITIE :Most B-schoolers claim that they are being pushed to the edge each day, having to stay up till 6 am doing assignments everyday, quizes and cases everyday, etc etc everyday.

The above statements are all true except it does not happen everyday. There are times when the profs bombard you with work, quizes, cases etc or when you are part of a certain organizing committee for a certain event. And during these times, you literally get screwed. But then are also times, when you are lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling wondering what to do next.

The same holds at NITIE. What I personally have seen ( and experienced) is that in a B-school a person can be as busy as HE/SHE wants to be. He/She can set the pace of his/her life. One may chose to just stick to acads and focus on CGPAs ( in which case there isnt much stress). But if you want to get into extra currics and still want to maintain your CG then it becomes a tough juggling act. And believe me, if you cant manage both well, you'll be screwed.

The above was general myth-busting stuff. Coming back to the topic of life@NITIE. Officially Class starts 9.00 am and ends by 4.30pm. Obviously, there's nothing offcial about classes at NITIE. Most guest lectures/extra classes start at 7.00 pm and may go on till 12 midnight. Classes could also start early morning 7.00am.

At NITIE, very few stick to acads alone and most of them alternative interests. We have several Committees at NITIE such as Placecom, PMG( Prerana mgmt group - Prerana being our B-school fest), CyberCom ( the IT committee - of which I was a part of :) ) and Rotaract and several others. Entry into most of these committees is vry competitive and of course one is expected to work like crazy for the committee if one is a member.

For a place like Mumbai, NITIE is an unbelievably scenic place, nestled in between two lakes and there are several spots most of us hang out to chill. THere is the NITIE pond, the MDP terrace( my personal fav) and loads of trekking tracks. So if you wanna chill or take a break after a rough day, NITIE's the place to be.


Of course, we do have loads of masti otherwise - whether it be watching movies (enabled by a robust LAN and a movie server), playing networked games, or partying away to glory at the Sports complex, etc etc...the list is endless - its all there.


And this sums of life at NITIE in a nutshell.


Now that i'm feeling hungry( so what's new? ), i'm gonna pester Demand Planner Kalyan ( my senior/roomie ) to give me company for lunch.