Resurrecting my world of MBA with a fresh zeal -By Barnali from MICA

As the cab takes that final turn and lands in the narrow lane that leads to the red-bricked college, I recognize a trepidation in my heart. There is a small, fluttery feeling that smells like excitement as much as it smells like nervousness. It’s time. Soon enough, I’ll step inside the gate, walk over to my new hostel and my new room. Soon enough, I’ll begin my second attempt at making a home out of this chaotic world of an MBA, hoping to somehow find myself through the process. Lying ahead is another year of late nights, basketball, classes and competitions. As I stand on the brink of it all, the past year flits through my mind in brief flashes and fills my heart with so much emotion that I almost can’t bear it.

1st March: The beginning of it all

I’ll begin this story with 1st March. The reasons for this are twofold, one: it is my birthday and two: it is a day that left an indelible mark in my little history of existence. On the evening of 1st March, 2019, my birthday, a Monday about as mundane and straight-laced as they are, I suffered a fall that caused a severe elbow-joint dislocation. Remembering the incident even now brings an ugly taste to my mouth. The unbearable pain, the crying, the pity, the doctors - it was full of nightmares. And yet, in hindsight, it was an important event that occurred to me then. It slowed me down, this left hand of mine that lived in a black sling and refused to let me operate normally.

It turned out to be a boon in disguise as I used the rest of March to slow down and process everything that had happened in that academic year. How I had arrived in MICA, in the world of MBA, as a naïve, hopeless girl with her heart full of dreams and plans. How the year had slowly eroded my naivety away, taught me to strengthen myself in the face of adversity and competition.
One major highlight of my year was when my team (me and my two friends) went all the way to HUL LIME Finals as one of the top five national finalists from the country. That was a rewarding and exciting experience.

The time to stop and breathe

And yet, when my hand broke and life slowed down, I realized that as I had hurried through the year, through all the classes and learning, winning and losing competitions, through the sports and the projects, I hadn’t had the time to stop and breathe. I couldn't sit and think about who I am, in the midst of all the chaos. To really give myself a chance to become somebody, I needed that hand injury, to gather up the frayed edges of my personality, to clean them up, to shape them into someone I wanted to become. By the time the month ended and my hand finally healed, it was time for the toughest months of my MBA world: the summer internship!

Another highlight, perhaps less celebratory, was my participation in SAMAR (MICA’s annual Sports Fest). In a month, as a training for SAMAR, I had picked up sports I’d never dreamt of: volleyball, football, throwball, and of course basketball, which I had hopelessly fallen in love with. Yet another highlight was the fact that I got to write, direct, and put up three plays on stage.

The eventful summer internship

I interned with Titan Company Limited. I had to work on a Digital Content Strategy Project for Tanishq. Despite what everyone said, I have come to really enjoy these two months. I got the chance to practically implement everything I had learnt through books and competitions (for example, digital campaign planning, social media listening tools, etc). I got the chance to gauge which ideas work and which don’t.

The most important thing I learnt and which I have since cemented into my mind to never forget, is that at the heart of marketing, there is only one very simple yet somehow complex thing to understand: human beings. Every campaign you come up with, every idea, has to tell a story that will be meaningful to at least one human being somewhere.

My job as a marketeer is to understand that one human being so well that I know their fears, insecurities, hopes and dreams. And then I can weave a story that’ll excite them, that’ll mean something to them. This, I believe, is essentially what marketing and advertising is all about. I got the chance to execute this too, during my internship. For various campaigns like Mother’s Day, Eid, I got the chance to weave stories that I thought my TG would enjoy. This gave me the confidence and boost that I feel all of us need as we start out with our brilliant, long, and for some, ground-breaking, careers.

Making the most of my skills in advertising

After my internship, I feel more excited to tell these stories, of brands, of products, of people, of hope and happiness. All my life I’ve consistently known how to do only one thing well, really well: write stories. And now I am getting to use this skill of mine to build a career in advertising and that’s something I am very grateful for.

So, now, standing at the gate of my college, about to enter my world of MBA again, I can’t help letting a little hope leak into my heart. And that, I believe, is the true power of us, mere humans: that even a bruised and battered heart has the freedom to hope, to soar through the skies carrying the criss-cross dreams of your future. The inevitable optimism of our human hearts is our ultimate victory. That is something I have learnt through the various hardships and pains I went through in the past year. I suppose this is what growth looks like.

I’ll end my story by sending out a whispered wish into the vast, starry sky: that this year I get to learn just as much and grow just as much. That at the end of the day, I don’t just leave this beautiful campus with a degree, but a heavy heart full of memories and a sharpened mind full of important thoughts.