Ideally, this blog should have come up a month ago. Nevertheless, better late than never! These adages have a thing or two about them. They are cliched, over used and at times abused; but still on occasions more than often they are able to generate the impact which the author wants them to. Moving on, almost a month ago, I sort of finished half a cycle of a relatively fulfilling part of my otherwise unfulfilled life. Unfulfilled in the sense that it carried a number of dreams unrealized, shattered and fulfilled in the sense that one of the most critical but happy phases of the same life finished and began. Apparently, the happiest I have ever felt was in the duration of the past one month. My B school life has rolled along with more hiccups than I expected. The good part of it was that I was able to furnish moments of fulfillment in this period.
From the initial disappointment to the many moments of life I got here made it a good experience. Although I still maintain that the majority of the things I learnt was during my hostel days but no doubts about the finishing touches I got in the last one year. B school life always presents you with a distorted mirror which might lead you to cross the thin line between hope and delusion and often in either directions. And trust me how you make the right image of yours is where the true learning sits quietly, waiting to be discovered and unzipped by you. At one hand it offers you the euphoria just when you enter it but the moment you are there, you are brought down from the skies to the hard (sometimes a little too hard) grounds. Well, before I get into the worst part of it, let me just get out into something which is good about it.
If one ever plays a sport, handling of pressure is one aspect everyone would agree is the most important. This life teaches you exactly the same. I tried to get away from pressure in the not the most approved ways but I did manage to do so eventually. It left me drained often but I managed to smile or sleep over it with good success. That is may be one of the biggest learnings for me. As far as experience is concerned, one can't fake to be enriched in this department as most of the experiences come at the back of well structured lies and similar stuff. I have also apparently used them to good effect. Honing those skills get you what you actually seek from B schools- a good job. I already talked about the projection of image as one of the major drawbacks of this life style but I would not again delve into it for talked about it an year ago when my euphoria turned into disappointment. I have come a long way since then.
As one of my friends very aptly once put while he was having one of those moments of clarity that management studies is the another name for how you manage your contingencies. And I had never heard of a better definition of an MBA ever before. I am still stuck with it in awe and admiration. You remove this part of the MBA education and the B schools are dead. Most of the people find great friends here. Misery loves the company of misery. Well apart from that, you otherwise also find fantastic friends. I might be wrong or lucky or both!
Anyway, my learning curve seems to be following a circular trajectory. After a year, I feel like starting again because I feel I am the same place for so long. I hear a "Harry Potter" movie is going to release this weekend in India. Another fantasy which leads you to a dream world but the nostalgia of the fantasy at the end of three hours is not exactly the feeling I prefer. Dreams are good as long as the reality is sweeter than them. And yes, there are people who have learnt stuff here, or so will they claim! After all, 10 lacs is too big a sum to be spent without actually learning something. So, I finish in words of one of the most wonderfully sarcastic people I have encountered......"JUST PRETEND" and you shall be happy :) !!
