The shadows (as the first years in the committees are called) were given the responsibility of becoming the ambassadors and therefore where we could not press a single wrong note. Everyone was briefed for the umpteenth time on the hows and whats, and as D-day approached, it became more surreal than ever. Never were we (newbies) exposed to this kind of work but we were enjoying every bit of it. It taught us to be dedicated for a cause, and who doesn’t like that, right?
The best part of all of this was that we were pitching to different organisations in different mannerisms as each of them represented different domains of work, and we had to vend various events according to what category they fell in. The media team was busy with their designing, pitching to media houses, writing content for the press releases, social media peeps giving their all with their catchy captions for various social networking channels, photography vertical with their prodigious ability for capturing every valuable moment etc. Calling it hectic would be an understatement as nobody was thinking of maintaining their sleep cycles, or going for outings for that matter. A deadline was there for us to comply with, for each assigned work and even the smallest of delay could’ve jeopardised the whole process because of the inter-dependency of the committees with each other. Surely there were setbacks, but whatever goes according to a plan when it needs to happen at this magnitude and with the humongous number of people involved? We got to learn so much from this whole routine that at some point of time we gracefully slid into the roles of our seniors (who were delegating us) and were no longer bound by the compulsion of performing duties but accepted our roles as responsible denizens of our University.
When one manages to be so closely associated with an event of this enormity, you learn way beyond what you thought you would. One might even say it was a transformative experience you talk to people from different backgrounds ranging from the bhainas of XUB to the corporate suits of the high-end organisations. Hell, we managed to get the most famous rapper of the country, “Badshah” on board to perform in our cultural fest and that brought out (as one can imagine) the best of our managerial skills in convincing him, his manager as well as the record label he’s associated with.
I being a bibliophile, preach to everyone on the importance of reading whatever one can get their hands on, but the power of experiencing the encumbrance of responsibilities firsthand is on a whole another level than one can ever anticipate. As John Keats quoted “Nothing ever becomes real ‘till it is experienced”.
Comments
Shweta Srivastava
A budding Rural Manager
So true! The practical implications are much needed :)
15 Oct 2018, 04.35 PM
Simran Mehrotra
It’s been suuch a learning experience! Given me the MBA experience that I hoped for in an encapsulated manner.
16 Oct 2018, 03.39 AM