Learning to swim at Great Lakes

August 2, 2016 | Posted by admin << back to blog

Arunachalam Rajagopal, PGDM 2018

“Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change” – Jim Rohn

True to the above statement, Mauryas, the PGDM class of 2018 entered this serene LEED platinum rated campus of Great Lakes. Meeting people from different walks of life and country for the first time; all under one roof was an exhilarating experience. On the very first day in the campus, our laptops were configured, books were issued and all the other registration processes got over. Parents who had accompanied their son/daughter bid adieu with a heavy heart, lot of emotions and endless hope.

While some of us were new to hostel life and some having quite a few experience before, people were helping each other to unpack and settle in the new place, a campus which will be our home for the next two years. we received a series of mails in our already configured laptops. Details about the orientation schedule, section split-ups, study group split-ups and few more mails were sent. We now knew what to expect from the program and understood it is going to be crazy busy.

Apart from the boot camp, the outbound training and official inauguration sessions, we also had introductions to various academic and supporting departments in the campus. Knowing that so many committees and clubs exist in this campus and it is mandate for a student to apply and be a part of one of the committees was challenging. We soon had to submit SOPs for the committees.

Another interesting challenge during the orientation was that we were split into different groups and each group had to write, compose and perform an anthem for the batch. Many of us without any prior experience in lyrics writing, music composition and singing took up this challenge and worked enthusiastically towards the task. With no drop in energy, fun and learning for ten consecutive days, the orientation concluded with an industrial visit and a communication workshop.

The Tapovan experience – a true bliss:

Tapovan is the place where the Gangotri glacier melts to form the river Ganges. Coincidentally, the name of the place where our outbound training happened was Tapovan, a place where our inhibitions started to melt. We had a series of events like rope walking, blind man walk, ball balancing, number punching, pipeline, catapult building and dream house building. Every activity had a learning associated to it. We were split into 12 teams of 10 each and had to go through the activities. Everyone had to come out of their comfort zone, had to work together as teams and crack each activity.

In one particular instance when one of our team mates was struggling to walk the rope, we started encouraging and cheering him thereby boosting his confidence. Looking at our support and enthusiasm, he walked till the end and completed the task successfully. We celebrated his achievement together and that’s when all of us understood the purpose of this task. What better way to introduce us to the concept of team work and group dynamics than this outbound training!

Best communication is the one you do with yourself:

The orientation ended with a communication workshop. We were given a tool called “CARE – Connect Authentic Relevant Evolve” and also a set of questions to work on, before facing any situation or talking to anyone. It is basically how we understand the situation and ourselves properly before getting into the battle of communicating our thoughts. We also worked on case studies applying the CARE concepts. In total, it was a great first few days and now we are up for more challenges!

The fear of water is gone; we have begun swimming in Great Lakes and soon we would cross Great Oceans.

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