MDP @IMT Nagpur: Part One

“Sometimes getting something late is getting something better.”

I was part of the third ECA batch for IT and the first batch to go through a 4 Days Residential Management Development Program (MDP) at Institute of Management Technology (IMT Nagpur) as a part of our ECA Certification. The day we received this mail from our HR Prerna Nagar, I went through the whole website http://www.imtnagpur.ac.in/ and was very excited about the program. The MDP was indeed very beneficial and very memorable for all the participants. If I ever be visiting the Orange City again, I would definitely have a round of the IMT campus. Penning down the summary in my diary...

A Day Prior: 04.03.2018

We were going to fly to the Orange City through Air India in the evening. Three of us (I, Madhura Chodankar, Asif Shaikh) met at the International Airport. We got our Boarding Pass and security check done and had snacks in the Food Court. The Airport is a big mall in itself, lots of shops, passengers moving around with duffle trolleys, announcements, etc etc. Anto, Padmanaban, Velankanni Jr and Solairaj joined us at the waiting area. We boarded the flight at 06:30pm and it was supposed to take off at 7pm. But the flight was delayed by an hour; its always good to have rough start because the journey ahead becomes more exciting. Finally we took off at 8pm, saying Good Night to the ever shining billion dots of Mumbai city and landed in the Orange city at 09:15pm. We already had dinner in the flight. At the Arrivals section, there were two men carrying the board "IMT Nagpur welcomes Asian Paints". It gave a celebrity feeling that someone is there to welcome us. IMT had arranged for two cabs to pick us from the airport. We were damn tired sitting for more than two hours in the plane. We got into the cabs and drove straight to the campus. It was dark and quiet. We reached IMT at 10:45pm and had our dinner again in the Canteen. The security then guided us to our rooms. We made an entry into the register and got the room keys (and the CDAC hostel memories flashed back for me and Madhura). We got into our rooms and decided to meet at 08:30am in the morning. 

Our room

The room was spacious: there was an AC, the cupboards had sections made from marble and were covered with newspapers and wooden doors. The instructions kit was kept on the table below the LCD TV. All the necessary contact details, WiFi access, Course schedule, etc etc was written in it. In short, a perfect preplan for the MDP. 

Day One: 05.03.2018

We started from the hostel at 08:30am and reached the MDP classroom in Main building. Food arrangements were done in the adjacent room itself. We had upma and tea for breakfast. We had a introduction session by our MDP coordinator Ms. Shubhangi Juneja followed by a brief on MDP by the Dean, Dr. Subhajit Bhattacharyya. Study material file and a bag was kept at each participants desk along with nameplates. 

MDP Classroom

First session was started at 09:30 sharp by Dr. Parijat Upadhyay on Agile Project Management Techniques - I. It started with Project Charter, Feasibility Study Report, etc and continued using Use Cases of Asian Paints projects each of us currently worked on. Post lunch session was too much of our interest since we wanted to know what type of personality do we belong to. In order to improve on our personalities, we should be aware of what type of a person we are and what do we need to work on. The session was on Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) facilitated by Dr. Smita Dabholkar. She elaborated on how to observe, understand and predict people in order to manage them better. She used many examples from our day to day life to make us understand better. There are eight dichotomies: Extroverts (E), Introverts (I), Sensing (S), Intuition (N), Thinking (T), Feeling (F), Judging (J), Perceiving (P). Based on the explanations, we were to guess the four letters we belonged to. Then the MBTI questionnaire was given to each of us. Answering all the questions and doing the calculations, we arrived at our Type. From the group of seven, four distinct types came out and further explanation was done. We were amazed looking at the slides for it described us exactly the same. The most important point we did note was the areas to work on. Ma'am did explained how to do this with illustration and short stories. With this today's sessions were done and we left the class after having tea and samosa.

Our agenda for the evening was to have a tour of the campus. We started from the MDP Guest House. The exterior walls had brick texture as if the building is newly made. 

Way to the Guest House

I went little away from the group to click the Orange city's setting sun. But I was aware that all others would hide somewhere in the trees and scare me. But all hiding behind a single tree was not a good idea. 

There was a big Football ground. Convocation ceremony was due next week so the preparations were in full swing. As we moved ahead, there was a Learning Resource Center (library). 

We walked around the lush green campus. There was a Basketball Court to the right and Hostels to the left. We traversed back on the same route. The whole atmosphere was so peaceful. 

We got back to our rooms, took carrom board from the security. Asif, Velankanni, Madhura and me played two rounds of carrom while Padhu, Anto and Solai joined us later in playing Dumb Charades. What a ROFL after quite a long time. We had dinner at 9pm at MDP mess. Then we sat on the main building stairs discussing random topics, few were glued to their mobiles. Around 10.30pm we went to our rooms and slept.

Read next: MDP @IMT Nagpur: Part Two