‘IRMAN’ - a very often used word in our campus. Whenever I use this word today, it makes me realize the enormous responsibility this word has entrusted upon me. At the same time, I also drive my strength from this very word and feel that I will be able to live up to what is expected from me and further strengthen the stature of this word.
It sometimes makes me to look back and contemplate on the transformation we have undergone in these two months. As I pen these thoughts, it is pouring with rain. The mid-term exams are just over for PRM 27. These circumstances are very conducive for deep thinking. I therefore decide to ponder further on this and try to find out the reasons behind this transition.
I am faced with the hard fact - I had joined IRMA to learn management. I never really had any definite objectives, apart from earning good money after graduating. But as I look back, I think there was a hidden desire to change the things around me for betterment of people and society at large. So with these apparent and some not so apparent reasons, I landed up in IRMA as a PRM-27 participant two months ago. The very first day, we had a briefing from our PRM coordinator about the placement policies and the orientation of this great Institute. Well to put it very candidly, I really couldn’t buy all that was told to us, which I now realize was just due to my lack of exposure. Afterwards, we were addressed to on many occasions by very eminent people in our induction program. But it was only the address by our Director, which finally compelled me to think about whatever I have done so far. This stirred my thoughts on what I want to do. The Director talked to us about the work satisfaction-money balance, which we all had all been seeking to achieve at various points of time. This however, did not mean that satisfaction can only be drawn by working for the society, but this is probably the case with me. I was a software engineer for last two years with a reputed organization and was doing well by any standards, but somehow something was missing. I am fortunate that now I know, at least with some certainty, what that missing element is. It was simply satisfaction, which I was not drawing from my work there and I had an inherent desire to work on a much broader canvass.
The induction program achieved its goal in as much as making me accept a lot many things which I had avoided or was reluctant to accept, to say the very least. But I was still a confused soul. I was still in a quagmire of thoughts and speculations about what I will do, or rather what I can do. But our institution helped me to answer some of my questions. We were sent to a village ostensibly just to acclimatize ourselves with rural life and society. But I think we were placed in a framework which helped us to introspect and battle with ourselves to change our thoughts and preconceived notions. This one week stay (though a very small tenure to explore) gave me ample experience to connect and explore rural India, thus further emboldening my resolution to work in this sector.
But still my mind was flickering over a lot many things, which were still not clear. Sometimes I felt like one having the capacity to change all this, and yet sometimes like one who is too naïve to do anything substantial. So with all these conflicting thoughts, I started attending our classroom segment. I was amazed to see a course on rural livelihood systems. Though I am not sure how well I have performed and what grades I will be rewarded with, but the classrooms have helped me to develop a holistic view and to some extent clear some of my doubts.
There still are lot many things I am not sure of; probably the transformation is still in progress. But I believe that our Institute’s mission along with my conscience will prevail, and at the end of two years, I would be a lot more clear and certain about my responsibilities and orientation than I am after these two months.
Pankaj Kumar
PRM 27