Sylvia Plath wrote
The Bell Jar in 1963, but the fig tree extract from the novel is as relevant to management students as ever. The protagonist sits under a fig tree, and each fruit represents a possible perfect future that one may choose. However, choosing any single one means giving up on all the rest. So one puts off choosing a fig for as long as possible, as they dry up and fall to the ground, one after the other.
A B-school is an elaborate simulation of the corporate rat race. I'm never done with work but I can never stop either. A permanent undercurrent of anxiety becomes the new normal. During free moments, it never feels right to completely let go of myself, I should be doing something useful. There's 40+ years of a corporate career ahead, but only two terms to decide my interests. I have to cram my CV with achievements and also stay in the top half of the batch and also enjoy myself because this is the last year of college I'll ever have and not enjoy myself because the loan amount is too large... It never ends.
Two things are always true for a B-school - There is a lot of stuff to do and there is a lot of competition for all of that stuff. It takes great clarity to isolate the one fig you are after and sacrifice all other goals in the pursuit of that one. Unfortunately, to stop chasing targets everyone else is going for goes against all competitive instincts and common sense. So you engage by default in the unwinnable CQPI-CV Point race and lose track of why you came here in the first place. You pursue madly as many figs for as long as possible. And now one by one the figs plop to the ground, as we move ever closer to the end of the journey.
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About the author:
Abhishek Tahlan is a second year student at XLRI Jamshedpur. He is also part of InsideIIM's student team for 2016-17. He loves listening to music, reading and writing.