Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Take on B school!

The other day some relative of mine wanted some tips on how to crack CAT and how life has changed in a B school. I told her , honestly even I don’t know what brought me here and what is keeping me here , so ended up giving her some advice which I myself was not sure of still pretended as if that was the best for her to do. A typical consulting scenario. That’s what this place has made me. We have learnt to compromise in some way with the way things turn up for us.

Personally I feel as confused as I was when I came here even today on what to do. There’s something about the place may be, it just forces us all to be what we are not! I realized it in one week, tried to keep myself away from the bug, but for how long is what worries me! When I saw people changing in split seconds, focus and loyalties changing, as if a complete restructure had occurred. Strange it has been!

They say B school is all about the knowledge you gain, not just inside the classroom but more on the outside! I completely agree with it! Think this is one belief that has not been broken yet. Apart from that, the hype, the hollowness of this sphere and the reality inside is little worrying! Do they make good managers?

When people get evaluated on their skills to retain the X line written in the Y course packet of the Z subject,
When choices of subjects is governed by the amount of grade point they can make,
When behaviors change around us at the rate of thousands of emotions per second and you don’t know who to trust,
When you receive the biggest blow on your confidence and still are ready to fight it out,
When sleep stops coming to you and you can’t sleep even though you want to,
When the conflict between your hopes and achievements becomes stronger,
When you compromise your own self to live up to a set of expectations and end up doing something you never thought you could ever do,
That’s when you realize, you are in a B – school…
Don’t know how much of it has occurred to me though! And don’t know the extent to which it will go!
The fight as I said!! Is ON

12 comments:

Siddharth Pathak said...

1. The place is a testing ground for all of us. It pushes us to our limits. Some of us resist or overcome it, other compromise and some succumb to the pressure. At the end of it all, we understand ourselves better.

2. People change everywhere. It's a refelction on grown-ups as such -- it would be unfiar to blame it on a B-school. Besides, often we judge things wrong ... the world is made of both good and bad people ... there is light at the end of evry tunnel ..

3. Often we fail to realise the beauty of where we belong .... we are lucky to be here ....... while you may be confused here, there is some reason that bought you here ..... and there is a reason that is keeping you here ... Be greatful that we are here ...

There are thousands who struggle to reach where you've reached ..... acknowledge it, learn from it, don't compromise but struggle to be yourself, don't run away from things but look for things to enjoy .....

Remember the grass is greener on the other side.

Nik said...

@Sidharth! There's is no reason for me not to be happy here and i very well acknowledge it! And fighting to be myself too!

Ragha said...

some day i would like to know who caused u sooo much of trouble..that too to u..of all the people!!!

Nik said...

@Ragha!-- hey i am alright! no trouble and all!!

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

@sid and ragha.. seems perfectly fine to me! guess we all have moments of doubt at some point in life..doesn't necessarily reflect misery..
Plus, sorrow usually makes better literary material than joy, eh NikiSoo? ;)

Keep fighting, lady! meanwhile, im takin notes if u ever need em! ;)

Nik said...

@Mahima -- Thanks so much!its like someone coming to my rescue!! :)..

RD said...

nice thoughts...though they dont sound good to go thru...but i guess that its the reality...many times I felt this way but with no option ard, kept quiet.

most of us have come here not because we wanted to be MBAs, but because we wanted to have a better life after this MBA... though I seriously doubt that...until n unless our definition of life is only money

met some old frenz in this brk, and realized that I would never b able to have a life like them after my MBA...this RAT race will take us to jobs that will give us money but at a huge cost...but do we have any other option?...may b yes...but how many are willing to accept that

I c myself changing so much...getting away from my dreams, my ambitions n everytime I try consoling myself saying that I will do it after 5 yrs... but when I c my idols giving up their life, their dreams to a high paying IB job, i really get worried
trusting ppl in a b school is difficult, though u can come across some good ppl....but still the feeling that u get with school frds... u just cant match that

but i m still hopeful... i wanna fight it out... the life after b school... to go back to what i wanted to do... in search of happiness... whatever it may take!

wish u good luck too!

abhiba said...

The path to enlightenment is a long and lonely one. It is not hard once you have walked a few miles into it. By enlightenment, I don’t mean being a monk or sage. You don’t need to go to a monastery, being a monk. All you need to do is enter in your heart.

Not everyone is capable, designed or destined to walk this path of ultimate fulfilment. Contemporary man is too engrossed in his desires that he doesn’t even know of any such path being into existence. They feel the idea absurd and too mystic to be a reality. Even the chosen ones, the so called elevated souls, who have the potential of breaking the entire jinx and be different from contemporary, are afraid to stand apart from the crowd. They fear as they know that at that given time they might be the only one on this side of the line and people might term them insane. So they pretend, being a part of this crowd who is moving as a bandwagon. They pretend moving their body on others beat, knowing very well in their heart, that they are not dancing. These beats are too loud that they don’t want to listen to the music of their heart.

Eventually the fatigue comes, they are too tired of all this, but they have travelled a lot of distance and are surrounded by crowd,- in front, on left , on right and millions of them following . Even if the heart wants them to run away is overpowered by the mind, who thinks logically. And the logic in the given scenario suggests that you are too much surrounded by everything around that breaking the shackled is not possible at the moment. But the big question over here is, can you break this bond and when are you read- mentally, physically and financially to free from these shackles.

When will be the right time to listen to your heart and follow it? Now, well maybe it’s too early. Because, if you are not well prepared to walk on this path of enlightenment, you might feel hollowness and a sense of loneliness. No one will be there to guide you on this way, but a light at the very end. In the beginning you can’t even see that light, it is very dim, all you have is hope and belief in you heart. Your mind might haunts you, asking is it the correct path- O God, I had so much to accomplish out there. But if your heart is content enough he can justify to your mind that you have accomplish a lot now its my turn.

To cherish the summer, you have to face the cold winter. To appreciate the light you have to be engulfed in dark for some time. To know the power of truth you have to lie sometime. Similarly to appreciate, to realise the importance of what your heart wants you to do, sometime you have to undertake what society and people wants you to do. You says it is ‘Compromise’, I would say its that winter before your summer, its that dark which makes you appreciate your light. It’s that lie you have to speak to understand the power of truth. The truth that is within yourself, in your heart

Just be good and perform right actions without thinking about its rewards or actions (BG)

Anshuman said...

Interesting post, and interesting comments too :D

RD said...

Potty...u could have done a better job...this one liner was not expected from someone like u

Anonymous said...

I accidentally came to this blog through some links of friends... but i have a story to share.
3 years ago, I cleared 2 IIMs, and decided against joining because I felt that I was happy in my technical profile, growing at an express rate, getting paid well, and I felt an mba would make me compete with diplomacy, sort of plot wars to be one step ahead of the competition and so on. And ofcourse, my company heads showed me a path which no mba could achieve, and i would.. but obviously that was too ambitiuous and i was too innocent to know that :)

Everyone thought i was an idiot to not go with the tide to the top B school, I still dont know what if I was right, but yes, I continue now with over 5 years of tech work-ex, have moved to a better company and doing reasonably good. working 5 days a week in a technically challenging and liberal environment, and
seldom having to worry about the changing people around me.

Your blog seems to enlighten me that yes, what my fears were, do exist to some degree definitely...

But yes, I still dont know if I did the right thing... but i know i am happy where i am.. Ofcourse as people told then, they still say today .. 10 years down the line you will regret it.. ;)
And I cant refute them, all i can do is tell myself that yes, you have it you to be the best, and you dont really need an mba for that...

@mba bloggers : any advices/opinions on my case!

-Ashish