Why MBA
B-school Interview Panel: Time 3.20 pm. “So why MBA after engineering”. (This was the question I was waiting for ever since the interview started. After-all I had been rehearsing this answer ever since CAT/XAT results were announced). “Sir, MBA will help me in Blah Blah……………..”.
Fast forward 6 months. One afternoon, the person inside me asked- “So why MBA after engineering?”. Unfortunately, this time I failed to answer. This practically summed up my status after 4-5 months in XLRI.
Expectations Meets Reality
The transition from an Engineering college to a B-school had really been unexpected and shocking for me
If engineering days were your first love, then the B-school days are the reality. Note I am not one of those who started CAT/XAT preparations after watching Two States and I never expected that B-school life would be in line with that of engineering. But I also never expected this much peer competition (most of the times unhealthy competition), desperate class participation, unlimited assignments, sleepless nights in a row. In the first week itself, we got inundated with committee selections, assignments, quizzes (XL boasts of more than 20 committees).
Here Come the Rajnikants with their CVs
The academic pressure and committee pressure were accompanied by CV preparation for the summer placements. This was the time when I had a feeling that as if I was not only the black sheep for the family but for this entire planet, as I soon realized that that my classmates whom I used to look down as Tushar Kapoor-s had actually turned out to be Rajanikant-s by their CV. As per my batchmates’ Rajanikant-s’ CVs, they used to be the Picasso in school, the Usain Bolt in college, the Einstein in academics and so on.
Centre Shock
The gloom and hapless feeling got further exacerbated by the committee rejections. In due time, I started getting habituated to this hapless life and I started getting a feeling that I had already seen enough struggles so I had nothing to fear. At that exact moment came the Mother of all Shockers-The Summer Placements. The 2-3 days (note: without a break) long placements process is bound to give you more nightmares than The Conjuring. It would start with the GDs where your only friend (and your only hope) Manmohan Singh would surprisingly turn into Arnab Goswami and start blabbing out irrelevant statements, where all your dude friends would suddenly become the Feminists of the Year, where the extrovert (or The White King of Desperate Class Participations) with a smirky smile would start killing the GD with all his/her ‘important irrelevant’ points. They would tell you to treat The GDs as Boardroom Meetings but trust me in reality the Summer Placements GDs were in no way different from Parliament Question Hours and the only difference was that here sometimes you had the liberty to speak even
‘as logical as Rahul Gandhi’ and yet clear the round.
Autumn is Coming
But hold on; B-school is not about academic pressure, unhealthy competition; as you move towards the end of the first year, you enter the ‘Pyar Ka Punchnama’ period. Once again you would feel ‘Life Sahi Hai’. You have now got habituated to the academic pressure and assignments no longer bother you. The late night adda sessions at Bishu Da had started heating up and I started getting a feeling of my golden engineering days. And then came the XL-IIMC meet which was nothing short of a Indo-Pak series. One would be surprised by the enthusiasm and choice of adjectives used by both the parties.
Summer Internships
Then came the summer internships-- this was the time when I finally found the elusive answer to the “Why MBA” question. I realized how the tons of case studies, unlimited assignments, never-ending class discussions in my first year had unconsciously structured my thought processes and ways of analyzing: the nights-long slogging had finally paid off. Moreover that was the time I first came into contact with the much talked about XL Mafia- the degree of interaction and bonhomie was unparalleled. (This is one of the main USP of being an XL-er; regardless of which company you join, you will always find an XL alum).
All Work & No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy
If you are a sports enthusiast, XL is the place to be. XL not only boasts of excellent sports facilities but its proximity to Tata Steel Adventure Foundation enables the students to train in state-of-the-art facilities of wall climbing, swimming, horse riding, rifle shooting. And if you are a trekking enthusiast, Jamshedpur can be your paradise- the beautiful Dalma hills and the end of term trips to Sikkim and North Bengal beckons you. Someone rightly said that some lessons in life cannot be learned within the closed walls of classrooms or office but learnt only through reflection and experience.
The Ultimate Bliss
However as a Bong and a voracious eater, nothing seemed to be more pleasing in my entire B-school life than the regional dinners hosted by the regional committees. Though I still miss the Kolkata’s street-food especially the phuckas, chicken roll and especially the aloo in biryani, but trust me XLRI Dhaba and Bishuda are the ultimate bliss for a non-vegetarian on this planet.
This sums up my 13 months journey in XL and the key takeaway from this roller-coaster experience is two words- “ Be Regular”(whatever it may be- the case studies, assignments, committee selections- the best way to survive the first year is to ‘BE REGULAR’).