Transformation via Maha Mandi

Maha Mandi – The Transformation

                             I can say that even before setting my foot on this God’s Own Campus at Mumbai, I have heard of MahaMandi. While doing specific research and comparisons about various B-Schools in India, Maha Mandi at NITIE was positioned and marketed in such a way that it could get the limelight of even a normal stalker on the internet. But true to lazy nature, I did not make that effort to find out what it was. And the time came. I joined this institute and this section to only get to hear word ’MahaMandi’ echo in my ears. And it was so much that, at a point of time I developed a certain dislike for this event. But not for long.

                           I can say that I was not a great follower of the build ups that went into this event. But there was an opportunity to work on posters, videos and creative ideas which created a sense of inquisitiveness within me to explore what this MahaMandi actually is.

                          And then came the day. August 9. A rainy Saturday. An ideal weather to sleep. But then if I miss this day, I would have to wait for an year or would have to depend on others to know what exactly MahaMandi is. Hence contrary to my nature, I freshened up and climbed the 96 steps to reach the Audi to listen to what the dignitaries had to say. All that done, I was all pumped up. With the selling caps on, I came down the steps, boarded the bus and yeaaah, I am going to explore the streets of Mumbai on a rainy afternoon.

                         I reached the hub mall along with Sailesh and Sushil and very frankly, we were hesitant at the beginning to sell as we had no clues as to how to approach the customers. But the hesitancy dint last long. We approached a lady along with her 10 year old child and asked her if we could spare a few minutes of time. We explained her the benefit of the product to her as a buyer, from her perspective and benefit of selling the product as a seller, from our perspective. As we finished catering to our first customer, Bang, we were on. Pumped up. Our confidence grew multi fold. We approached almost everyone. We were greeted with more blank faces than smiles. But our confidence grew. The movie going family, the ice cream loving uncle, the NGO loving software professional, the NRI aunty. We sold the inventories to them and there we were. Inventory worth Rs 2150 sold out in just an half an hour by us, who knew a little of hindi but knew more of marketing and selling. At the end of our inventory, we were quite saddened as we did not have more inventories to carry on with our selling spree.

                           Nevertheless, what I initially thought to be boring was interesting. What I felt tough was easy. What I thought a waste of time gave me great experiences. I take this opportunity to thank Dr Mandi for providing us with an unique experience of learning.