I was back at the MICA campus recently to take a couple of sessions of Digital Media Planning & Buying. My previous (and my first) visit to the campus was in August of 2019 and this trip reinforced the positive feelings I have for this unique campus.

The campus is located on the South Western outskirts of Ahmedabad city, in a place called Shela. The campus is just the right size for a medium sized educational institution. At around 15 acres, it is neither too small to make the place look cramped and not too big to make it impersonal. Add the beautiful landscape of lush green lawns, leafy trees and the built environment of low rise exposed brick architecture, and you have all the right ingredients to make it a wonderful place for learning.

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The place is also bordered on one side with a branch of the Narmada canal. Add the fact that it is located amidst farmland, well away from the hustle and bustle of the city and you have a place that’s a dream for bird-watchers.

I have, so far, spent only about 5 days at the campus, and spent about 4 hours in total in bird-watching. But in this time, I have observed no less than 52 species of birds. To put that in context, I have counted 65 species in the 18 months that I have been maintaining records on ebird.

Here are the birds I spotted during my stay of around 28 hours in the MICA campus this week:

1. Indian Pond-Heron
2. Cattle Egret
3. Little Egret
4. Black (Red Naped) Ibis
5. Oriental White (Black Headed) Ibis
6. Black Kite
7. Oriental Honey Buzzard
8. Western Marsh-Harrier
9. Grey Francolin
10. Indian Peafowl
11. Red-Wattled Lapwing
12. Common Redshank
13. Eurasian Collared-Dove
14. Spotted Dove
15. Little Brown Dove
16. Blue Rock Pigeon
17. Rose-Ringed Parakeet
18. Plum-Headed Parakeet
19. Asian Koel
20. House Swift
21. White-Breasted (Throated) Kingfisher
22. Small Bee-Eater
23. Lesser Golden-Backed Woodpecker
24. Rufous-Backed (Long-Tailed) Shrike
25. Black Drongo
26. Brahminy Starling
27. Common Myna
28. Indian (Rufous) Treepie
29. House Crow
30. White-Eared Bulbul
31. Red-Vented Bulbul
32. Rufous (Tawny) Bellied Babbler
33. Jungle Babbler
34. White-Browed Fantail-Flycatcher
35. Common Tailorbird
36. Indian Robin
37. Great (Cinerous) Tit
38. Purple Sunbird

Of these, I was particularly delighted at spotting two ‘lifers’ – The White-Eared Bulbul and the Rufous (Tawny) Bellied Babbler. The formed especially delighted me as it is only found in North-west India.

I have recently started a new teaching assignment, with the Institute of Product Leadership. I am teaching Digital Marketing to students in the first year of their Full Time MBA Course in Applied Data Science and Technology Management.

The classes are conducted in the campus of MITADT at Loni, Pune. MIT is a well know engineering college. I am familiar with and have visited their campus at Kothrud in South West Pune during my time studying at the Government College of Engineering (COEP), Pune. But this was a new campus for me. In fact, it was the first time I was visiting Loni, about 15 kms to the East of Pune, on the road to Solapur.

I was staying at a hotel in Mundhwa, or Koregaon Park Annexe. This is right in the heart of the city. And it had its advantage in that there were good street food options a couple of minutes walk from the hotel. I did not want to travel to Pune and not try the local street food and was delighted that I could indulge in this conveniently.

The commute to Loni took around 40 minutes one way. The campus is a pleasant one. Not very large, but with imposing buildings, dominated by the towering World Peace Dome. As with most educational campuses, it had well maintained lawns and numerous trees. The classrooms on the other hand, though, were relatively small and very school-like in its feel.  Having said that, it did have its benefits of being more intimate, leading to a greater degree of interactivity than in larger rooms.

MITADT campus

MITADT – World Peace Dome

MITADT Manet Building

Temple inside the campus

Mula-Mutha River

One of the enjoyable moments for me occurred while I was taking a post-lunch stroll in the campus. The Mula-Mutha river forms the northern boundary of the campus, while immediately outside the main entrance to the South runs the main Mumbai – Solapur railway line. One frequently hears the passage of trains anywhere in the campus. This reminded me of my own engineering college, which, though located nearly twenty kilometres to the West in the heart of Pune city, had the exact same geographical layout, bordered by the river to the North and the railway line to the South.

I enjoyed teaching the course and look forward to subsequent visits.