An eventful first day @ NITIE

Where it all started....

Syndicate 2. The official classroom of section B IM 20 batch. It all started when a simple and decent man walked in the classroom and asked us to sit on the floor along with him. That very moment I understood that this course journey will be very different, interesting and will charter through untested waters. Prof. T Prasad (also famously known as 'Prof. Mandi') gave us the first taste of how our management learning should be.

Socho.....Becho!!! Becho.....Seekho!!! Seekho....Socho!!!

Prof. Prasad introduced us to the concept of "Mandi" and "Hamara Dhanda"(These are the entrepreneurial activities of NITIE). Through "Mandi", hundreds of NITIE students stride the streets of Mumbai, selling various educational and scientific toys. He also showed us some of the toys like "Newton Craddle" and "Globe Ball". All such educational toys are available in the market but the general public is not aware of them. Any child using a globe ball can play with it and also could learn from the map/globe printed on it. By using a newton cradle, along with playing, a student can learn vital physics concepts like conservation of energy and momentum. All such things are commonly present around us from where we can derive our education. What one lack is the vision to find them.

       

Through such activities and examples we will be implementing "earning for learning". This was the concept Prof. Mandi taught us on the very first day. It is a continuous learning process, where I will be regularly improving my skills through such activities and interactions.   

Aaj ki roti, aaj hi kamayenge!!!

Through the course of the class, Prof. Prasad made us realize that we all have invested a huge sum of money in our management education (ranging between 16-24 lakhs) and it is high time when we should be earning some money from the education. The concept of "Hamara Dhanda" was explained by Prof. Prasad where he gave an inspirational example of students who had formed their Dhanda by selling Newton's Cradle and subsequently earning profits from it. Innovation is the key.

The session was open to all kind of discussions and questions. Prof. Prasad answered diverse questions ranging from the event "Mandi", the climate of Mumbai, NITIE campus being God's own country, Mumbai rains to his teaching pedagogy, course structure, simple innovations etc. Prof. Prasad encouraged the students to apply their 25 years of life experience to practicals and to learn from experience.

Learning takeaways -    

• Theory alone is not sufficient for gaining knowledge. It is the application of that theory to practical day-to-day systems that forms the essence of knowledge. Sharing of that knowledge is also equally important.
•  Leaning from experience is the need of the hour. One can combine the learning with profits, business, earnings etc. so as to have rewards for knowledge and innovation as well as to have more learning.
• For big things to happen, it is not the big ideas, solutions or inventions that are needed to be created, but the small things, day-to-day activities, simple applications of education which are responsible for big changes and advancement.
• Writing a blog could also be a fun along with being informative. It helps us to increase the scope of our knowledge and also can be used effectively to share one's learning, experiences and knowledge with others.

An Innovative Interaction