IIT Delhi DMS' Induction, Life's Construction

22^nd July, (3.00 am)

“What a shitty life! What kind of assignment submission has its deadline at 02.00 am? Are these people crazy? Wasn’t the PJA submission at midnight sufficient enough for them? This is ragging. I just want to complain about these people to human rights. Now not even in a position to write down my frustration and want to run away from this place.”

These are the two paragraphs from my personal diary as it is and that too within 30 hours of gap. What had happened in these 30 hours? What kind of activity has made this 180 degrees phase change in the thoughts? The Induction Program.

Induction program is something where seniors guide you, motivate you and introduce you to new campus. This was the preconceived notion I had in my mind when I read the mail from the Admission Committee. I was 2 minutes and 25 secs late for the first Induction session carrying forward my legacy in engineering life. We, a group of 7 people, were scolded so horribly that I thought I had stolen 2 lakhs rupees from their bank account in those 2 minutes. It was worse than my worst nightmare.

It took me 2 days to understand the sole purpose of this whole Induction Process. Physics defines induction as a process by which a magnetized or electrically charged object produces magnetism, an electric charge, or an electric voltage in another object without touching it. Our seniors were doing the same and their seniors had done the same to them in their junior year. Here we were the metal pieces to gain the charge, magnetism and energy from our seniors. The purpose was never to harass us or to demotivate us. The whole purpose of Induction was to push us beyond the limits that we have defined for ourselves, to realize the capacity that each individual has and to prepare the team of future MBAs for coming 2 years and for life after that.

I met my team during induction process, the very dazzling Risha, Ankit and Shayan with their TCS work-ex and all time excited, Stuti. We named our team Rubik’s Consultancy (RC). RC became my life for those 8 days. I remember on the 5^th day of Induction our team had worked continuously for 30 straight hours including class lectures and Induction timings. I never would have believed if someone had told me in the past that Shrirang, your brain could still work if you have not slept for 30 hours and now I have a proof that my mind works even better if it’s given a push. Induction not only taught us many basic management skills such as making a good power point presentation and presenting it as well as to get over our fear of public speaking but it also helped to get out of our individual comfort zones. The advertisement task, the treasure hunt, the ping-pang-pong and the skit performance task took out the creative manager from within.

My personal diary:

30^th July

“Induction ended today. Its 2.30 am already and I don’t feel like sleeping. I don’t feel like resting. How can my mind allow me to do so? I have checked my mail at least 3-4 times before taking this pen in my hand. It was Induction only which made me this active or proactive I must say. I never thought I would say this but I think I am going miss these days…”

Shrirang Halwe

DMS, IIT Delhi