Vision in the Dark

 

Visiting the IIM- Ahmedabad was bound to be a memorable experience .. We arrived at night and saw the very minimalistic and placid , yet imposing design of the IIM gate .. and I was impressed right then.

The structures were huge but simple .. built to serve the purpose .. to give huge spacious areas for ripe minds to grow … I could envision the yester-years when Dr. Vikram Sarabhai first must have initiated the institute with such hopes and dreams .. His dream has blossomed into this magnificent fortress of wisdom and excellence today ! The air was serene but was buzzing with a kind of infectious positive energy .. it infused those huge geometric spaces

The rooms were frugal but very comfortable .. with neat little shelves.. ideal rooms for  student life ..an apple and banana neatly kept near our beds .. so simple and nice

 Entering the lecture halls next day was like déjà vu when we went back to our medical college days ..( of course our halls weren’t so well designed unfortunately )

Dr. Rajesh Chandwani is a brilliant man under that simple unassuming smiling face ..he was a pediatrician for 14 years before he decided to switch careers and has been a professor at IIM-A since 10 years now.. his story is no less fascinating .. he was the course director and the first thing he made very clear to us was there are no teachers in IIM …. So not to expect a didactic discourse ! Sure enough we were continuously prodded to think, speak, lend wings to our ideas .. re-analyze and come to a solution for a stipulated problem .. they kept giving us these brilliant and hilarious examples  ..they majorly taught through examples and real life situations..  our brains were churning continuously .. so there was no scope for missing a single word .. I, for one, hung on to every word they spoke .. I knew this was a once in a lifetime kind of opportunity …

Their analogies to Mahabharat and Ramayan and Vikram and Betal made everything so much more relate-able and entertaining..

The first valuable lesson taught to us was “ Intelligent people don’t associate “ , so stop expecting doctors to be united and loyal for a cause..

Then he asked us about the changing face of healthcare .. the hall echoed with laments about professional jealousy, patients losing trust, nobility of profession being degraded etc etc .. he penned them all on the board and then showed us the broader view of how healthcare has changed over the last few decades..once doctor was God as he was capable of curing infectious disease .. now he was just a manager of chronic conditions .. there was a shift in the way the patient views his doctor now .. Also the general prejudice is to view the doctor as privileged and rich and the patient or society as the victim .. hence the public apathy towards doctors

There was a class on the nitty gritties of digital marketing – In plain and simple terms how to manipulate the virtual world into thinking you are  “Oh So Hot! “ .. they did not mince words ..it was Chanakya- Neeti .. and its essential in the commercial world ..

One of personal branding by Dr. Asha and I especially loved her presence and aura while she spoke .. she asked us to envision 5 doctors were brands in their own right and the qualities that converted them into a “ brand “ .. it was a revelation when we started listing what set them apart .. what gave them that edge … she repeatedly urged “ Find your Star ! Find that thread that connects you to your patients .. and makes them come back to you !! .. and then she gave us this brilliant concept of  “je ne sais quoi” – meaning “a quality that cannot be described or named easily”.

 Its like saying – There is something about you .. though I cant put a finger on it … I loved this expression

 

A role play ensued on the hypothetical case of a doctor being virtually maligned for drinking the night prior to surgery leading to patients death .. the news reporter reaching the doctor n how he said he wanted to report his side of the story .. but how the reporter had just come to fetch murkier details to publish an even more controversial tale .. The argument got so heated that the doctor doing the role play seemed to forget it wasn’t him being implicated : P Dr. Manoj took this session and he was exceptionally brilliant in riling up the poor doctor in the hotseat, bringing out the wrath and steering the conversation into ugly alleyways. This made us wary about how likely it was we would behave in the same riled up fashion and give the media more fodder.. we would put out foot in our mouths when we least wanted to and something innocent would be twisted and projected in a wildly villainous fashion against us ..

The Dr. Rajesh said “ I can’t tell you what to do in this extremely sticky situation .. but I sure can tell you what not to do ! “ and he did .. he gave us this brilliant example of Kapil Dev who when questioned on corruption charges started crying and talking about his glorious years in cricket and hence dodged his way out brilliantly. I asked him “ So tears are a good way when in a tricky situation .. and he said – “ Yes, why not ? “ ::D

We also had this fun evening filled with karaoke and then garba..and chhhachh .. this was Gujarat after all ! Haha

 And right after we were taken to the board rooms again for a discussion on cases for next day .. with a hot cup of chai at 11 at night! ..

 The next day the visit to the “ Vision in the Dark” was the most astonishing part of the program. This was experiential learning they said and it was !

We were led in a single queue into the especially designed Dark room built at the Blind Association .. this was my first experience with complete darkness .. It was unprecedented and scary and we all sought out each other and the wall in the dark either through touch or sound … we clung to the wall from dear life .. and I even followed Saba’s ponytail for what its worth .. despite all the noise and knowing we were in  secure zone the feeling of claustrophobia would not go .. it was a realization of what life is like for blind people and it sent a shudder through all of our souls.. we then watched/ heard an audio movie through the words and imagining the scenes as blind people do ..

We came out after a good one hour n were dazzled by the sunlight  .. but now we felt we could breathe free again .. we came back to our syndicate hall .. n then Dr. Chandwani in his usual brilliant tactical way made us view our behaviour inside the dark room through a microscope .. it was such a lesson in human behaviour and leadership and managing people at the workplace .. it was all about looking at things through that lens .. learning from observation

The IIM faculty are a class apart .. I have never encountered such teachers in my life ( although they don't like being called teachers ) who stirred us so much intellectually and emotionally in such a brief span of 2 days .. no wonder it is one of the  major hubs of knowledge dissemination in the world .. I bow down to their brilliance in their simplicity and hope to imbibe the wisdom they sought to give us and come back hopefully for more  !