Mystory@Ajinkya Samarth: How I chose my course and college

Mystory@Ajinkya Samarth

It was summer of 2016, days were hot and so were the evenings, Syrian War was at its peak and Donald Trump had just hit the news headlines… but for me the major issue was not the temperature nor America but my Graduation result! I knew I had done well in my exams but when it comes to results, human mind is not satisfied until one sees the marksheet with one’s own eyes. One fine day the wait ended, I had cleared my graduation with flying colours and I was very happy about it. I thought I had achieved something very big. After all the celebrations and joy, a big question was in front of me – ‘Ajinkya, what next?’’ As my decision was going to decide the course of my future. After all sorts of family discussions, counselling, brother-sister talks, I came to the conclusion of doing MBA. Only thing I knew about MBA was that it was a course related to doing business and as I belonged to a family of businessmen. My career counselor also said that the course would do justice to my interests and my inner voice gave a thumbs up to MBA. Now that a major question was solved, the second question was ‘’from where to pursue it?’’

How I cracked admission to my MBA college

My CET score was good enough to get me admission in any big institute. Luckily, I had lot of choice, so I made a list of top 3 colleges where I wanted to get admission, with the help of my sibling who was also pursuing MBA. I applied for those colleges in the CAPS round and also institute rounds of the respective colleges. I went through another round of anxiety and finally the wait was over for me. By God’s grace I got myself an MBA seat in Shri Ramdeo Baba College of Engineering and Management (RCOEM), Nagpur.

Frankly speaking, this was a college which topped my list because RCOEM was a popular college in the State as it was a college with an autonomous status, so I kind of felt proud of myself for getting admission in it. Till I confirmed my admission in this college, I received lots of wishes as well as lots of rumors about the college that it’s very strict, attendance must be above 75%, placements are seriously good and all I could do was listen to them and wait for the big day. After all the paper work, I was finally able to see the campus with my own eyes and not what the website wanted me to see. It was a beautiful campus, located on a small hill. One can only imagine to have a college at such a beautiful location with lots of trees, lovely pathway with garden on both sides and spacious buildings of different departments and it satisfied the nature lover and traveler in me. After the admission procedure was complete we were told to immediately join the college.

My college life and what I learnt from it

I thought the first day would be the same as it was used to be during school days or as it was during Graduation days but it was totally different. I acted in a more mature way and was the first to introduce myself to my classmates, may be that was the first sign of growing up. There was an induction where were told about the college, the rules, the norms, exams, course details etc. Our seniors were good but we hardly met them until our induction program as our timings were different. After induction, I actually understood what it meant to be busy and have a hectic schedule.

At the start, time passed with snail speed but as we indulged into assignments, presentations, and class work, we never knew how a month passed and it was time for our first test series (session/unit test). I was kind of scared as we had lots of problems getting the text books due to shortage but having bought second hand books or photocopying them we were ready for the exams. We were told about the paper pattern but again it was the curious case of the human mind, which was satisfied only after I saw the paper with my own eyes. While revising for the test I could recollect all what teachers taught us as the concepts were very clear and being the first test it went really well.

We humans have a lot of talent but we hardly know about it and we show it only when time demands. If I remember properly it was the second day of our college, it was the Business Ethics lecture, we were divided into groups and given some cases, and told to share our views about it. My chance came at the end and for the first time I spoke my heart out in front of 60 real people instead of social websites. I overcame my fear of speaking in front of an audience, I knew I can speak well but I never knew how I sounded but that day everyone in the class appreciated me and eventually I will be known in the college for my general and real time knowledge. For me it was an achievement, no doubt I made mistakes but as one of our teachers said, “you have the license to make mistakes for the next 2 years.”

RCOEM sets a classic example of the ancient ‘Guru-Shishya’ tradition and teachers are more like friends available any time we want them with great knowledge and amazing information about the real world. So, by the time college ends you will definitely become corporate ready. I have a lot of interest in Indian scriptures and history, but during my graduation I hardly got any chance to share my knowledge with others as there was no scope or reason to do so. I thought the same will happen in MBA but I was wrong. Twice I got the chance to give presentations and speak for more than 35 minutes on the topic of my choice. Who would have thought that the most shy student during school days would become one of the best speakers of the class in college. Later on, I coordinated and managed major events in the college. I became a totally changed person. I did things I thought I would never be able to do in my life and when you get appreciated by others you get even more motivated.

As time passed, I adjusted to 7 hours of college along with other activities, it didn’t appear hectic anymore but part of my daily routine, it became so much of a habit that holidays started to feel like a burden. Few days back I visited the same counsellor whom I visited before joining MBA and according to her I am a totally different person now and I have changed in a positive manner. According to others I sound more professional. I entered this institute without any goal or target in my life but today I have one target and I am working hard towards it.

We humans have a short life to live in which we have to achieve everything we want but that’s very difficult, as we have endless goals, endless targets and never ending dreams and wishes. Sometimes we may fail to achieve something we wanted, we may have broken hearts and sometimes we carry a mountain of problems on our shoulders. One might easily accept defeat but one thing that stops us from doing this is hope to never give up in life and fight back come what may. Secondly, everything that happens, happens due to our karma, our actions. We are responsible for our tomorrow, our future and no other person. That’s why never fear to struggle, never be shy of working. No matter who we are, we have to perform our responsibility, our work, and by performing those rightly we can achieve what we really want to achieve and that’s what I believe in and that’s how I am going to live my life. That’s why instead of just studying MBA I am trying to experience it, I am trying to live it and RCOEM is helping me do it so that I can face the real world without fear.

I could go on and on but I will end here. I don’t know whether after passing from college, things will go as I planned because one doesn’t know what colours life may show with my sort of thinking but I will follow one quote of Swami Vivekananda with which I will end – “Dare to be free, dare to go as far as your thought leads, and dare to carry that out in your life.”

About the Author:

Ajinkya Samarth is pursuing MBA at Shri Ramdeo Baba College of Engineering and Management (RCOEM), Nagpur (Maharashtra).