MDP @IMT Nagpur: Part Two

View from our MDP floor

Day Two: 06.03.2018

We reached the classroom at 08:30pm and had sandwiches and poha for breakfast. Again the first session was on Agile Project Management Techniques - II facilitated by Dr. Parijat Upadhyay. We were briefed on various Software Development Model. During tea break, there was a photo shoot for our batch along with the Director and Facilitators. Post lunch sessions are actually heavy due credit to our tummies full with tasty food. The session was on Communication and Team Building facilitated by Dr. Jagannath Mohanty. He was very enthusiastic and the whole session was like I am watching a live theatre play. The point he emphasized more was on learning to judge and identify people and then decide how to approach them. We got to know about different types of bosses, team members, followers, generations, etc and how to interact each type. The last session for the day was on Innovation at Work by Prof. Sandeep Gupta. We learnt about various types of innovation and journey of an Invention/Discovery to Practical use. Having tea and cutlets, we left for classroom. Boys went to play cricket while myself and Madhura dozed off. As usual dinner and talking on the stairs followed. There were many students in the campus, some roaming around and some working on their laptops. It so much reminded of CDAC days; institutes never sleep.

Day Three: 07.03.2018

Today the breakfast was aloo paratha. Then Shubhangi Ma'am chalked out a plan on the board for our market visit. We were very much excited to shop on the streets of the Orange city. The session started at sharp 09:30am on Customer Centric Strategies by Prof. Pradeep Mazumdar. He had worked with Asian Paints in the past and took AP as an example in some of his discussions. Customer Experience, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Profitability, Customer Relationship and Loyalty etc etc was elaborated by him. There was a tea break for 15 minutes and the next session on Project Quality Control by facilitated by Dr. Parijat Upadhyay. He briefed on project scheduling, PERT, CPM, WBS, Estimation of cost and efforts. Post lunch session was on Stakeholder Management facilitated by Dr. Senthil Kumar. He started from the very first word "stake". It was interesting to learn through small interactive activities. The last session for the day was on Conflict Management facilitated by Dr. Saleena Khan. She briefed on Implied Communication, Personal Iceberg, etc. We were given a questionnaire to solve; the scoring of this gave us the answer for the Interpersonal style of Conflict management we use currently. She elaborated on the areas to improve towards achieving Collaboration. Then we had tea and pav-bhaji and got ready for the market tour. 

We got into the staff office bus and left the campus at 6pm. The last stop was City Office, we got down there at 06:45pm. Two cabs were arranged to take us further to Burdi. We stopped at Eternity Mall, crossed the road beneath the flyover and got into one of the two streets. There were many shops selling clothes. Asif bought two cute little dresses for his niece while Padmanaban bought a saree for his wife and a small dress for his little daughter. Then we bought a gift for Shubhanji Ma'am, Solai bought an idol of Lord Buddha and Madhura bought a pair of squirrel made on wood but it was flexible. Then we headed towards the next lane at Heera Sweets. Here we tasted different types of orange sweets and ordered many boxes. There was an orange barfi, orange + chocolate barfi, orange pulp barfi, orange + gulkand + kaju katri, orange sonpapdi, etc. The taste buds had too much of orange I should say. Loaded with bags, we got into the cabs and drove back to the campus. We had dinner at the dhaba "Daana Paani" as a promotion party from Asif. The dhaba was just opposite to the campus main gate. There were big round tables; eating in open space has its joy. All of them ordered non-veg; I ordered veg crispy, it was veg but not at all crispy. I somehow managed with the oily matar sabzi and butter naan. We got back to our rooms and slept.

Day Four: 08.03.2018

Today was our last day in the Orange city. We almost packed our stuff and the number of bags now increased by one. As usual we had breakfast of medu vada at 08:30am. The first session was on Problem Solving and Analysis facilitated by Dr. Sarbjit Singh. We discussed on the steps for solving any problem. We drew a Fishbone diagram for two cases: a generic bank scenario and slowness of website (this was specific to AP). Post tea break, we solved four cases of Decision Tree Analysis. Post lunch session was on Planning and Organizing facilitated by Dr. Jagannath Mohanty. Here he elaborated on Time Management and to avoid time wasters and use the four quadrant chart to categorize and prioritize for work. He also taught us about the 6Ds (Doing, Dumping, Dropping, Distribute, Delegate, Deputizing). A quote to remember was "Do not let the monkey to sit on your head and scratch your brain". The last session of the MDP was on Building Partnership facilitated by Dr. Senthil Kumar. We started with a quick quiz to recognize facial expressions. There was a questionnaire FIRO-B (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior) to be filled, scoring of this gave us our Social Interaction Index. Again there was a small exercise on individual and team. The MDP was wrapped up at 05:30pm after we all received our certificates and group photo from the Director, Dr. Subhajit Bhattacharyya. We requested Sir to present our gift to Shubhangi Ma'am for her excellent coordination throughout the whole program. Then we had tea and kachori and left to our rooms to finish off the last minute packing.

All set for the journey

Two cabs were arranged for us. Prof. Pradeep Mazumdar accompanied us to the airport since even he was flying to Mumbai an hour early than our flight. We reached Diksha Bhumi at 7pm. We walked straight to the main stupa. There were two statues of Lord Gautam Buddha in the center circle. We took a round of the same. Then there were many photo frames describing the journey and works of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar. 

Diksha Bhoomi

Then we got back to our cabs and drove all the way to the airport. We reached the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International airport at 07:30pm; Sir left for his flight. Our flight was scheduled at 09:20pm. We inquired at the counter for our flight and as predicted the flight was an hour late. So we had dinner in order to kill the time. We took our boarding pass, did the security checking and sat in the waiting area. We watched cricket, again to kill the time. 

Waiting at the airport

Now it was 10:30pm and there was still the status Delayed against Air India. The passenger crowd started growing in the waiting area. Finally the boarding started at 11:30pm and the flight took off at midnight. We reached Mumbai at around 1pm and had the aerial tour of the city due credit to congestion. We landed at 01:20am, booked an OLA and left airport by quarter to two. Though the flight journey was hectic, the whole experience of MDP was really fruitful and memorable.