First week of MBA, all new faces around and little alien feeling, you happen see and meet students from diverse backgrounds. We were scheduled for a 2 days long program which included orientation and ice-breaking sessions. It was very important, after all this batch had to spend 2 important years of their lives together. An external trainer was called from Delhi to conduct these sessions.
I was personally looking forward to these two days because 1) I like making friends and build my network stronger 2) who wanted to miss such a good opportunity to get some popularity in the first week of college by actively participating in all the activities.
I would be lying if I don’t mention that, these two days were one of my most memorable days at the college. We had some of the best career and guidance lecturers, we played some amazing games, interactive workshops and not to forget those lovely short-breaks and lunches with new friends. The two days every minute was a learning experience; "the one game which we played on the first half of the second day was a life changing experience for me".
Trainer asked us to divide ourselves into teams of 6 each and he locked the classroom from inside. Game was very simple, using anything present in this room each team was suppose to make longest possible chain with in 15 minutes. The team with longest chain would be declared the winner.
Most of the teams started joining their belts, shoe lace, socks, and handkerchiefs; girls started using their long duppatas and after that we all were sure who is going to be the winner, plus from team of 6 each around 4 girls were wearing duppata on that day from that particular team. I felt so unlucky that in my team we just had boys and nothing else was left with us to increase the length of our chain. Just 5 minutes had passed and we were left with complete 10 minutes in hand. As I was leading my team, I felt helpless because we had no options left.
And all of sudden the instructor started shouting loud “Guys it’s not about resources it’s about possibilities” come on boys, come on girls “it’s not about resources it’s about possibilities”. When he came near our group I told him we have nothing else left to attach and he again told me the same thing “its not about resources you have, it’s about possibilities you can think with the limited resources around you” and with in a minute I understood what he was expecting from us. “A possibility”, immediately I unwound all the handkerchiefs and asked every one in my team to tear their handkerchiefs into thin strips and then start tying these strips. Guess what, it helped us to increase our chain twice the size it was before. But, we were still much behind those 4 long duppatas.
We saw other team members started removing their shirts and attaching it to the chain, but none in my team wanted to do that because of various reasons.
Again the same sounds hits the ear drums “it’s all about possibilities” and guess what immediately after these magical words touched our ears; a member of my team came up with a possibility which was out of this world. He just took a pair of socks and went to a corner and asked us to cover him so no other team can copy his idea. He just pulled a thread out of the socks and the rest was history. That thread started coming out as if it would never stop, and at the end of 15th minute we had the longest chain ever, "a comprehensive win"!
Those 15 minutes whatever happened that day, altered my way of thinking forever! Now any problem I encounter, I look for possibilities and no more dependent on the resources. Those fifteen minutes taught me to be a part of solutions and not problems.
Guys remember! It is not about resources, it is about possibilities…
