It was dawn, when we got down at the Chennai Central. Lost in the beauty of Chennai, the golden letters at the IIT gate brought us to the sudden awareness that our age-old dream of being IITians had been finally realized. The wildlife and the greenery in the campus were pleasing to the eyes.

Seated in a classy air-conditioned room, amongst my batch mates & dignified, wise professors, our orientation started off with our HOD introducing the birth & history of the MBA programme @ DoMS, IITM. The excitement was unimaginably palpable and reflected on every fresh face when our HOD talked about every possible element composing the department. - the high energetic students, their activities, their laurels achieved all the year around and also their contribution in bonding with the under & post grads at IITM. We also felt very lucky to have an entirely new 5-storied department. Building, department library and lab facilities added to the other world-class facilities on the campus. Lastly, he spoke about the triumphant batches of the past.

"Can MBAs make good entrepreneurs?" was a gripping lecture conducted by Mr. G. Shankar, Head, Madras Consulting Group and an IIMC graduate. The lecture started with a discussion on the problems faced by small business while establishing themselves especially acquiring loans and overdrafts. The discussion then highlighted as to what we can gain at IITM DoMS to tackle those problems. It was enlightening to have knowledge on the problems, challenges faced and the responsibilities of a senior manager in "A Day in a Senior Manager's Life" by Ms. Sandhya Shekhar, an alumnus of IIMB, who was the Vice-president of Gartner and is presently pursuing her PhD @ DoMS IITM on a sabbatical. Our new revamped curriculum was introduced to us. As testified by our seniors, it was definitely a more demanding curriculum and was designed to give us an exposure to all the fields of management from the first quarter itself.

The next day, we had an illuminating presentation by one of the co-founders of "Ma Foi", a top-of-the-line HR Consulting firm, Mrs. Hemlatha Rajan who discussed with us the importance of using a MBA programme as a springboard in our careers. Up for grabs were some pearls of wisdom by Mrs. Usha Titus, who, besides being Medical Doctor and an IAS Officer, is the Registrar of IITM. She described to us, the simple fundas of life, which if implemented, would leave a lasting mark of prosperity in our lives.

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* Contributed by -
Rachana, Neeraj & Utkarsh,
Class of 2007,
DoMS, IIT Madras.