When a fresh graduate walks through the enormous gates of any of the premier management schools, he or she will be geared up to face a new challenge in their lives. But what they fail to foresee is that there is an all together different set of challenges that awaits them there.
The keywords causing perennial apprehension and circumspection among the preponderance of the youth today are - pre-paid, bonus card, STD plan…….-the list seemingly never ends. And while Airtel’s opus wages a ceaseless war against Hutch’s zoozoos, few other diminutive ones attempt at making inroads with enticing offers or just hopes that unintelligible and ignorant ones will overlook the spelling of the company’s name.
In the movie ‘Transformers’, a car can become a humanoid in just seconds. But in real life the transformation from an Engineer to a Management student took many turns and unfolded mysterious paths and reached the destination at IIM Trichy. Like the hot filter coffee of south India, Trichy welcomed me with a heat of 450C. But the cool seniors gave a grand welcome and the friends/batchmates made the environment habitable for a Bangalorean like me.
If you ask anyone about what they want in life, all the responses boil down to– I want to be happy. I know, some might argue that there are altruists who are working selflessly for others. But is it any different? Aren't they doing it because they find their happiness in others’ happiness? So, there is an ‘I want to be happy’ element in it as well.
Ridicule the randomness, or abuse the way it is conducted, Common Admission Test for this year and its other relatives are done away with and the season of auditioning before the best of the intellectuals in the country has just begun. Yes it is the time to appear for those nervous interrogations and take one step closer to your dream of becoming an MBA. To some it may appear to be a Herculean task and to some it is like a result of years of penance, but having been there and experienced it all, take my word that it is actually not that tough.
When we take admission into a B-school, all we here is how they look for diversity. Gender diversity, background diversity all sorts of things come into play. But it was not till a couple of days back that I actually was left speechless with two instances. There were people with whom I have been interacting for more than 8 months, but never did I expect this.
9.00 AM - The piercing blare of my phone’s alarm brings me back from the thirteenth dimension of deep sleep as my non-REM cycle aborts and I awake with a splitting headache, with the choicest of cuss words for my phone, my timetable, my life in general. But a good seven snoozes later I’m back to my best behaviour. Picking the least smelly pair of jeans from the laundry bag, I jog to my 9.30 class.
The farewell to the seniors last week reminded me of our fresher’s party eight month before. It was hard to realize how quickly the time passed by. Within one month, and the first year was about to complete. The involvement in the daily academic works and co-curricular activities made the time to fly unnoticeable. Quizzes, assignments and projects became the part of my daily life. Late night discussions and few hours of sleep now had become a common phenomenon.
