B-zy Me...

One week old in a B-school and i am still clueless about what i want to get out of this MBA programme. And it is precisely this very fact that's giving me sleep-less nights. Nothing else could be more unnerving than to realise that you do not have a clear view about your future, especially when most (well, almost all) have their minds made up and hearts set upon their chosen paths.

One of our very dynamic marketing professors' kind advice to all of us was - decide which subjects are gonna be your forte for the rest of the two years here and then go for the kill. In the rest 15 or so just keep afloat (yeah.. we have 18 subjects !!!). But what if you don't know what you want ?

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The OBL went perfectly fine. All complete with the first rain showers of the season. Though our "OBL" started a night before we managed to catch up with the class 6 hours later. Well, as someone said 'Friends, family and health come foremost. Everything else follows'.

Made lotsa crazy crazy friends and I guess it's because of programmes like these that u start feeling belonged; the warmth; the sense of oneness. The Bonfire rocked, skit went off well but the highlight of the day would be the fire alarm that went off in the middle of the night, followed by the mad frenzy of scambling outside, leaving all your belongings behind to perish in the imaginary fire that was supposedly raging around us, and building dusty tents so that we could stay in there. Weird.... but fun.

Next morning saw me gettin up at 5 for the first trek of my life. Gettin ready to conquer the Singhgad. A few observations:

1. There is nothing more powerful than the human mind. Stress, anticipation or the idea of giving up lies in the mind. If your mind loses it your gone....
2. Take each stone as it comes without thinkin of the mountain top.
3. Learn to find your steps through the seemingly uneven stones. Its surprising how they seem to appear once you have made up your mind to see them.
4. Take small steps as per your capacity. Its absolutely worthless to think of how fast/slow others are. So it always help to compete.
5. Carry lots of water but dont think of drinking it all at once.

That was a lot of gyan and all this enlightenment was attained as i climbed to the top. Maybe heights are conducive to contemplation. Maybe that's the reason why sages preferred solitude at great heights.

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Life here is weird. Sometimes there is such tremendous workload , that you are struggling to stay alive. At other times there seems such a void, you wanna scream your lungs out for work.

It's like the lull before the storm, and it's precisely this that makes it more scary. Atleast when the storm's raging you know that soon this would pass. But when you are going through a relaxed spell you never know when it's gonna hit you. You wouldn't even know what hit you. And it's nerve-wracking. Especially in the face of a dismal performance at a surprise class tests in one of my weakest subjects (Not weak really.. just new and unaccustomed... that's it). This cannot and should not be repeated. I sincerely hope. But where's the stress to keep me on my toes ?

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Switched to aerobics since the past coupla days. Its rejuvenating, stimulating and ofcourse tiring. But it feels awesome when you are planning to bunk the class the next morning. Well, planning as yet..... let's see what my conscience has to say about it tomorrow.....

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Cmon gal... buck up.....

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Sometimes i wonder....... Why do we have to sleep at night ????

Day 1...

The mad-mad world of a B-school. Had heard about it but now i am experiencing it first hand. I reached my institute on the 1st of june but the so-called events have begun from today. Met my new room-mates(from now on "roomies") on the 1st. One gal from Delhi and another from Amravati(an interior from Maharashtra). Nice gals. Here one's almost "married" to the roomies. You stay with them, sleep with them, eat with them, study with them, attend classes together, sit in classes together.... its endless. So the point is that you gotta really establish that connection with them which will help you achieve that perfect balance in your life.



The day started with what would probably be my first "shocker" in the two years here. First surprise test and as my luck would have it, it was my most "favourite" - Financial Accounting.

Fumbled through the entire 30 odd questions and couldn't remember a thing about what i ahd read during those bliss-ful days back in Mumbai.



And still that was the BEST part of the day. coz after that began the onslaught of hair-raising blood curdling presentations each of which systematically described the way we were going to be toughtened for the big bad world. It was like Organised Crime. It started with the harmless syllabus, then the attendance norms (for both acads and non-acads... the most alarming part) and finally the cherry on the miserable cake- the GPA system. For people like me, who had only read about this in Five-Point Someone, anticipating this nightmare personally was...well..cant really find the right word... maybe "stressful" ? yeah it was.... the throbbing headache reinforced that fact.....
Lunch was a saviour. Fried rice, Paneer makhani, soya bhaji, chapatti.... yummm....
After lunch we immediately rushed to the Audi for a briefing on the health care facilities being undertaken for us- the budding managers. The chief speaker, a doctor, clairified that acording to a study young management students like us were found to suffer from a number of lifestyle diseases like hypertension, kidney stones etc which even they themselves were not aware of. But this did not come as a surprise to me. If the course was designed in such a way that there would be a constant level of stress hovering on our juvenile minds all the time we were bound to land up on the docs table soon.....So here everything is taken care of.. The Cause and the Effect... the Virus and the Antibiotic.... the Disease and the Cure... lol....

Finally we had a "surprise" (i guess i should really stop using that word... it might just turn out to be the next most over-used word in my active vocab ) lecture by our Director, which simply underlined the simple message which was being drilled into us for the whole day... GET READY FOR TOUGH BUSINESS... hahah.. interesting... so here we will test our limits and maybe even stretch beyond them, we'll realise what we are truly made up of...

Finally we were handed a HUGE pile of books (which apparently forms only a tiny fraction of what we actually have to read and study) before we headed for our rooms....

tomorrow we head for our very first OBL (out bound learning) where we'll BREAK the ice and BUILD the team (i like the way this line is framed...)... and before i can say "oh i slept for only 3 hours yest"..... i'll head to my bed and be off to sleep... till then... Adios...

Lessons Learnt....

My much planned Goa trip came to a wholesome end yesterday. A perfect trip accompanied by some profound lessons. For instance i didn't fail to notice that Goan roads can be dangerously curvaceous and this can prove to be badly nauseatic for a person like me, i didn't fail to notice either that my meals dont seem to be complete without a bowlful of pure white curd (made out of skimmed milk of course !!!) or the fact that a Muslim taxi-driver knew the location of all our temples far better than we did !!! 

This particular guy has been accompanying my family on all our annual (or maybe once-in-two-years) temple visits which are carried out in order to appease all our dieties. The fact that my grand-mother insisted on his accompanying mum and me on this trip came as a surprise (to me) for i know my granny's unflinching hatred for anything non-Hindu. but then there were many factors which worked in his favour- gran's cousin knows him personallyso its safe with him around (whewww !!), his charges are reasonable (surprise.... there's global recession staring us in the face dude !!), he is the only guy who knows the perfect way to the Vijayadurga temple at Keri (are you kidding me ?? and we ain't talking of a masjid here !!). The last one struck me like a bolt of lightening. So where are the talks of hindu-muslim divide ? 

Do Saal Baad....

It has been two massive years, a 365*2 day count. Somethings have changed, some haven't... but one thing is definately true. I find my self doubly confused. And yet more relaxed. An irony. Yes Life has become an irony.....