One of the most difficult decision any student in LIBA should take during his first year is whether to be an Intern in a reputed company or opt for student exchange. Having known LIBA to attract excellent companies, it was an extremely difficult decision for me to choose between the two extremely good options. However, like a normal Indian, who did Engineering for four year and then worked for a MNC, it was evident for me that latter was attracting me more. So, I decided to take a leap of faith and got admitted in student exchange programme in Universita Cattolica Del Sacro Cuore located in Milan, Italy.
One Notable thing about LIBA is it has excellent connections with other B-schools worldwide. People from different parts of the world come to study as well as teach in LIBA. There were around 20 foreign exchange students who studied with me during 5th semester and there are 10 new students now. So LIBA has an excellent mix of Indians as well as foreign exchange students.
I was accompanied by five other people from LIBA and we decided to undertake the adventure of our lives. Having raised in a village in Madurai, living in Italy was a dream come true. The buildings and food were totally amazing. This was followed by our first day at class. The class had a healthier mixture of people from different nationalities. Sooner I started getting along extremely well with other people. This resulted in forming a closed group of people and we called ourselves “Dinzies”. The group comprised of people from different parts of Italy and one Indian. Those were the best moments in Italy when you learn the Italian culture and you teach them ours. We would hangout most of the time cracking jokes on each other and living the so called Italian dream. We try out different restaurants each time during our case discussion breaks.
The other interesting facet of my journey was the Travel experience. Europe is well connected and so I had the opportunity to visit 6 countries and close to 34 cities. I used to pack my bags and start travelling alone. This was a great opportunity to know different people. I had a knack to make people speak and soon I meet a lot of people from different ethnicities. I meet people from Ghana, Irish, Brits, Finns, French, Spanish, Germans, Slovenians, Sinhalese, Pakistanis, Singaporeans, Americans and so on. I used to hear their stories while travelling and learn from their views. This experience of knowing people from different backgrounds was so amazing.
To share one experience, was my journey to Lourdes in France. When I arrived at Airport I realized that it was a 10-mile journey to the city and no buses were plying that day as it was a public holiday. So, I spoke with fellow traveller from my flight and booked a single car and travelled together. Each one in the car did not know each other, however, we reached the destination together. This was a kind of experience that I so desired. It costed 5 Euros instead of the 50 Euros that I was about the bear initially. There were several such instances in Hamburg, Lausanne and so on in which I had to manage the situation to my advantage which I thought I was incapable of.
I would like to conclude by saying we live in our own bubble and only when we come out it we will know the beautiful world that we haven’t seen. These are those memories that we can take till the end.
Marcel Tino
LIBA | Batch 2016 – 18