Thereafter we gave our personal interview and years later in Dubai in 2016 or so, when Beloved Bala Sir arrived in Dubai I asked him, Sir do you remember when we first met? To which Bala Sir said yes. The army officer in the personal interview was asking you questions – why do you want to leave your job and stop earning and do PGDM for 2 years? Bala Sir continued- To which you responded, “I want to be on the Top of the World”. Bala Sir remembered our first interaction – a raw young kid from the streets of Pune from a humble background.

While I got up from my interview on my way out, Bala Sir said- “Gentleman – You are with us.” Meaning your admission is confirmed. I came outside and told other candidates / applicants who were in the group discussion with me – to which no one believed me as the results were still to be aggregated for written, group discussion and personal interview.

I got admission into IIMM now BIMM and deposited the first instalment from the borrowed money from Chandrashekhar Uncle Ji. From here on my life began to change for the better. After the orientation program, the first thing that Bala Sir announced was the legendary (Late) Dilip Bam Sir presentation where each student had to present and would be scored by the legendary Late Dilip Bam Sir- master communications expert, vagabond, automotive guru and the man who rode across the Sahara desert on his two wheeler.

I wanted to be the first to present on a concept I had picked up and learnt from Late Prof. M.P. Parmar, Vice Principal, St. Vincent’s College of Commerce, my mentor and guide: “The H -Human Concept”. I also wanted to weave a karate demonstration to explain the concept. But didn’t have the money to bring a few tiles for a Karate demonstration. So I went to Late Sinha Sir and borrowed Rs.100/- to go buy tiles, which he lent me generously. By the time I got back three students had already presented, a few friends also helped me to reach the Ram Society Hall on time. So I guess I was the 4th presenter to go up on the presentation stage at Ram Society Hall near our college.

As I was already working as a Designer or DTP (Desk Top Printer) Operator, I drew up a few designs and got printouts and then got printed / scanned on the transparent slides which were to be presented on the projector. I shared about the H = Human concept – Head, Heart and Hands. How when two Human beings meet and extend a Hand shake it builds a bridge and forms the alphabet “H”. How working in synch with Head i.e. intelligence and Heart i.e. passion and Hands i.e. doing the work, can lead Humanity to Hell (failures) vs. Heaven (success). Home or Hotel. Heights of success vs. Hindrances and hurdles. Humility, Humour vs Hedonism, Hatred etc. As I was the President of the Students’ Council at St. Vincent’s Night College, I was working with the Institute leadership and students community. So I added how IIMM / BIMM Institute Leadership can work with the students community etc. if I remember correctly.

Late Professor Parmar Sir who was the Vice Principal at St. Vincent’s College of Commerce, Pune later on also taught at Sri Balaji Society. Parmar Sir always encouraged us students. At Vincent’s College of Commerce, I was made the President of the Student’s Council in my Third Year B.Com. I’ll share more on him and my alma mater St. Vincent’s College Of Commerce- when I visit in my next Pune trip.

I happened to score the highest and Bala Sir announced a Gold medal for the highest marks scorer. Dilip Bam Sir was very impressed so was Bala Sir and my fellow batch mates. My bare feet started to bleed due to the impact while breaking the tiles.

After all the students were finished presenting, Bala Sir proceeded to announce. We will now select the President of the Students’ Council for the very first batch 1999-2001. He said since there were no seniors, no juniors, the only thing common to judge everyone would be Dilip Bam Sir’s presentation. Bala Sir said – who got the highest – Deepak Rai – will be the President of the Students’ Council. Who got the second highest – Shipra Bhandari – will be the Vice President of the Students’ Council.

This enabled me to work with Beloved Bala Sir more closely on various activities and initiatives, events, outreach program that only Bala Sir could imagine and execute upon. In 1999, I saw what bootstrapping and building an Institute single handedly meant, looking at Bala Sir working 24/7 365 days immersive, with a single-minded purpose of building Careers and Life for the students.

Sometimes, I would drop Bala Sir from campus to his home in Yerawada on my bike Yahama-135. One day, at his home, Bala Sir after discussions about the Institute matters asked me to share more about my family and how was my experience in the Institute and if everything was ok with me. So I shared with Bala Sir about my family and how my Mom Dad focused on education for us siblings. I said the experience has been great but I have a problem. Bala Sir asked, what is the problem? I said, I have no money to pay the next instalment. Bala Sir asked, given your background then how did you pay the first instalment. I shared with him about the loan Chandrashekar Uncle Ji had given me. Bala Sir looked at me and said, don’t worry I’ll give you scholarship for the rest of the semesters for you. So the journey began.

One day, Bala sir called me to his office and said. Deepak- listen, I and Bala Ma’am would like to visit your family for dinner. Sir and Ma’am came to our tiny rented home in Somji, near Kondhwa. We had no furniture so Bala Sir and Ma’am sat on the floor and had dinner and blessed our family staying in that 400-500 square feet rented room. These were times, when Bala Sir was getting invited by Army Generals, who’s who in Pune for dinner but I hardly saw him going anywhere. It was Beloved Bala Sir’s greatness that he choose to come to our little place to bless us. Both Bala Sir and Ma’am came. We will forever remain grateful. I didn’t have the self-image to invite Sir and Ma’am home at that time.

Bala Sir told us to organise the first cultural. So a few of us were discussing and I suggested we keep the name “Drishti” for the function depicting Drishti or Vision for the future about our lives. Vision of our parents for us. Bala Sir’s Vision about the Institute and students. I have a lot memories about this. But some other day. Years later when my batchmate and friend Chetan Shegunasi met, he reminded me that I had proposed the name- “Drishti” in our huddle students’ council meeting. Bala Sir invited leaders from the corporate, services, politics to provide us students a great learning platform- Gen. V.P. Malik, T.N. Seshan- Election Commissioner, CEO of Unilever, Shri Balasaheb Thackeray, and many many leaders and Corporate Doyens. The first ever trip with Bala Sir on a train journey from Pune to Tirupathi Shri Lord Venkateshwara Darshan. This trip was a long long lesson. I’ll share some day in future in detail.

In that flat of Bala Sir in Vishrant Wadi, Bala Ma’am would at times cook for us students and we would sit down on the floor and work with Bala Sir preparing late night for the next days event, speeches, logistics. This is where I first met with Bala Sir and Ma’am’s sons Param Bhaiyya and Anand Bhaiyya. At that time the founding family had a pet dog- Candy a big German Shepherd.

Many memories of personal interactions with Bala Sir and my batchmates from Indian Institute of Modern Management (IIMM) now Balaji Institute of Modern Management (BIMM) and Sri Balaji University, Pune (SBUP)

Deepak Rai
SBS/ SBUP Batch 1999-2001 The first batch

First President of the Students’ Council at SBS/ SBUP

Co-Founder & CEO

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