MBBS graduate on Covid duty gets into IIM-Bangalore

MBBS graduate on Covid duty gets into IIM-Bangalore

Bharat.Yagnik@timesgroup.com

Ahmedabad:21.05.2021

Dr Nuhad Bardai’s joys knew no bounds when she received her admission letter from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, one of the top 100 business schools in the world as per Financial Times’ Global MBA Ranking 2021. The letter came on the day of Eid, which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims across the world fast from dawn to dusk.

Dr Bardai, who completed her MBBS from BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad, was in Covid duty as a part of her medical internship, when the final results for the Common Admission Test (CAT), 2021, came in.

“I felt as if my prayers were answered. I was doing Covid duty for about a year and found time only between two shifts or during the mandatory quarantine period to study for CAT. Yes, there were apprehensions, but I am happy to make the cut in the end,” Dr Bardai said.

Hailing from Rajkot, where she completed her schooling, Bardai belongs to a family of businessmen.

“I think it is quite out of the box for medical professionals to go on to do an MBA. However, I believe there is a dire need for such people and the pandemic may have shown us why we need better management in healthcare and the medical field," she said. Her goal is to eventually go into healthcare consulting and then start a venture of her own. “So, in all, I will always remain a doctor, but I will utilize my skills a bit differently.”

Dr Bardai has been a bright student, always making it among the Top 10 students at BJ Medical college, considered as one of the top medical colleges of Gujarat.

Dr Bardai served nearly seven term duties in the Covid-19 centre as part of her studies. Her stellar performance in academics continued as she scored 96 percentile to not only crack CAT 2021 but get interview calls from top B-schools of the country including IIM-Kozhikode, nine new IIMs, FMS Delhi, and NMIMS, Mumbai. “As a medical science student, I was used to studying for ten long hours. So, it was not a big challenge to study six hours a day for CAT. The bigger challenge was when Covid-19 cases began to rise and we had to step up our efforts and work relentlessly," Dr Bardai said.

Dr Nuhad Bardai studied between shifts while serving nearly seven term duties at a Covid centre