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Out of these, CB started only post mid term. So as you can see, my time table was not exactly what you will call, Hectic. Another thing, if you see my subjects, apart from CB, none of them were focused on one particular field. And that’s what I love about this place.
I am free not to be bound by stereotypes and can actually learn any general management subject that I want to. And in all my 3 terms now, I planned to mix subjects from all fields, even including Philosophy, which I will talk about later!

So effectively, my academic load was zilch to say the least, compared to what I had in the first year. But I had purposely chosen subjects that will not give me much pain in this term. I have taken a bit more painful subjects in the 5th term, but I wanted to reserve the 4th term for basically recuperating from the strains of the first year and, hence, just enjoying myself to the hilt!

The one interesting thing that we did academically was our IDF project. We did a project on the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project, which is currently one of the biggest things happening on the infrastructure front in the country. In one sentence, it involves reducing the width of the river Sabarmati and using the reclaimed land to build beautiful public and commercial spaces. The end result would actually change the very face of this city. The best thing about this project was the insights gained from the primary interviews that we had. We spent huge time and effort in meeting with almost all stakeholders involved, including AMC’s Deputy Commissioner, the architects and even the slum-dwellers who are going to be re-located. The end result was a comprehensive report of which the group was really proud, basically due to the huge first-hand information that we had gained. It surely was the best project I had been a part of so far in this institute.

We had actually taken an exchange student from the US in our study group and the experience was rewarding. She was very senior to us, in fact she was serving in the US Army! She was here doing a Public Policy Programme and had taken IDF as one of her subjects. The insights that we gained from her were phenomenal. More than that, she was the motivating factor behind the group. After the first year, the enthusiasm levels of the group in tuchchadom were not really what I would term as ‘great’ but she ensured that we are on our toes on this project and this project wouldn’t have been what it came out to be without her!

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* Contributed by -
Vinamra Srivastava (Campus Associate),
PGP - 2,
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.