Wednesday, May 03, 2006

aM.Be.A.

Master of Business Administration – The most overvalued, over hyped and glorified thing I have ever pursued in my life. A mere master’s degree has become so important part of my life that I eat, drink, sleep the same – no it’s not about academics – it’s about life itself. At one moment I feel “Oh! Why I landed up here?” and the very next moment is an Aha! moment.

Its now almost a year since I have been here in Mumbai doing my MBA. Sometimes these 11-12 months seem like few seconds because one never realizes how time flies here. You just keep fighting against deadlines. Deadlines for everything… Projects, Presentations, Assignments, Surprise tests, Mid terms, End terms, Placements, Alumni meets, Corporate projects, B-school competitions, Seminars, Extra curricular activities, Festivals…. Huh! I am out of breath but this list doesn’t end here… And even after all this you see lots of parties happening… birthdays, achievements or without any reason… Let’s go for booze!!!! Then there are late night movies, strolls on beaches, an ice cream around the corner, and coffee with few close friends…. Clash of egos, clash of personalities, clash of titans and all kinds of clashes... hence helluva sound…. Remaining awake whole night to complete the assignments or remaining awake whole night just to talk to your best friend coz you don’t find time in the daylight… Doing all this and much more but still one thing remains the same… You just keep running against time and never realize when your next birthday is around the corner…

And sometimes you tend to feel as if time is moving at the snail’s pace. It may be due to the concept of relative velocity. You run as fast as time, so time seems static. Am I talking metaphysics? The monotony of doing the same things again and again and again… similar presentations, sometimes even similar topics albeit with few modifications… just stops exciting you. Surprise tests stop surprising you anymore. Hypocrisy comes to fore. It’s only on your birthdays and achievements that you realize that you have many more friends than you counted on your finger tips the previous night. Few close friends become still fewer. Late night parties become sickening and boozing sessions see the same discussions getting repeated. The Steel Man from our class will always tell that how he worked like a coolie at his sister’s marriage. The fanatic from placecom will give you his old wisecracks. The CFA in making will tell me that why I am a CEO material and I will reply back by saying that I don’t have those big ambitions. The chikna Metro sexual always seems to be assessing what the hot girls in our class think about him and still tells that he doesn’t care about girls. I will be generally stuck up with same issues too. The Cool Maratha will keep advising me on my repetitive mistakes and thus this cycle of repetition goes on and on and on… It seems as if time has come to stand still.

Then at the end of the year you see the light at the end of the tunnel. You get a well-deserved break in the form of summers. So here I am working for 2 months in an organization. If I sum up the entire year, I would say I have earned 3-4 decent friends, and some knowledge. I made so many mistakes, which I will never repeat in life. So that’s a takeaway. I can understand hypocrites and losers better. You know this seems pretty interesting. I read the story of the fox and sour grapes when I was a child. It actually applies pretty well for an MBA. It’s as good as any organizational politics. People never appreciate the winners here. They just try to justify their failures and attribute your success to the most hilarious of factors. I have lost a little bit of purity of mind and of course a hell lot of sanity and inner peace. I have understood the ephemeral nature of success. What else? There’s a lot more to tell but words are difficult to come by.


So at the end of the year I am partial MBA and can proudly say “Main Bhi A” – I m also there. By the next year-end I will be “Main Bhi MBA”. I was trying to find various other connotations of MBA that suits the philosophy of me being an MBA. So here it is to conclude my ideas.


aM – it is present of the word BE. It signifies my existence. MBA indeed has become an important element of my existence today. It defines me in a different hue altogether.

Be – No! No! Not Behzad Patrawalla. It just signifies, Be there, Be present, Be real, Be ALIVE.

A – First letter of the Alphabet. What can this signify? This signifies highest category, the power of ONE.

Well this is getting too much for you and me. So let me close here…

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

So finally you have come out of you sabbatical... shame yaar.. just 9 blogs in a year... kidding... this one is nice One and comes straight from the heart. but may be MBA students will relate more to it... coz as u know engineering days will never be back...

Anonymous said...

Fisrt time u have written something on ur blog which is not that socially relevant but still full marks to weave a nice picture of what MBA is all about... Great going CD.. will u come back to ludhiana or not... boss its now 7 months...

Anonymous said...

What Bakr and What Bakwaas... U have written?? Write MUMBHAI - 3

Anonymous said...

hor bhai MBA... Saanu desiyan nu bhul gaya bai...

Anonymous said...

MBA - Main Bhi Aaaoon?? MumBAi

Anonymous said...

This is so close to our lives! great job charan!

Anonymous said...

Good Job CD... seems u just wrote ur mind.. a nice blog after a long time!! by the way u missed a mention of Quad n Scafe.. we have spend more time there than in classes..:).. Pratibha

Anonymous said...

KAMINEE....
MERA NAAM USE KARTA HAI .....

(C) INFRINGMENT
CHARACTER "ASS"ASS"INA"NATION"
MENTAL TRUAMA....
PHYSICAL STRESS (MAYBE CHARLIE AND HIS ANGLES CAN HELP ME)

OOH I FORGOT ... CHARILE HEE YEAH BLOG LIKHA RAHA HAI.....

THEEEK HAI BOSS... ITS WAR THEN....

NICE BLOG !!! RATHER TRUE TOO !!!
ALL D BEST MA FREN.....

NM KA JAHNDA AUR BHI UPPAR KAROO...

Anonymous said...

So MBA wat was the inference after all that ranting???? U still don't want to be CEO??? Chal koi nahin!!! I think you are better off writing Sociology instead of this!!! They were better and everybody can relate to it also!!!! Hope to see sumthing better next time around!!!1

Anonymous said...

I found the article quite nice... CEO and sociology.. what the big deal.. i know u r for something biggr than that CEO... huh huh London Dreams... still on???

Anonymous said...

hii charan...well thats a really good one!!


can relate so much to it ...except the boozing part coz guj. is a so very dry state.

Rohit Mahajan said...

hey charan, happened to drop by ur blog. Nice post u have written, and as have been told by other BSchool friends too, MBA is surely a very hyped education. Btw, me too goin' for MBA this year...Hope, i retain the lessons u just taught. :)

All the best with ur life ahead,

Rohit

Wild Reeds said...

Beautiful post. I have just spent 6 months in Euromed Marseille on the exchange program, and 6 months before that in NMIMS and I have vividly experienced the things that you wrote about. Excellent blog.
Respect,
Sachin