Joke of my life

Let me talk about the biggest joke of my life that last week has been. I have no words to express the agony that i went through last week. Apart from the 10 viva's that i gave in 2 days flat and what more i was not prepared for even one of them i gave 5 intenal exams.

I think these exams need special mention. First of all these exams come out of the blue for all of us. I mean how can we prepare 3 subjects in a single night. that too the test was on the complete syllabus that we have for the entire semester. Anybody who thinks that students today are ready for their entire syllabus full one month before the finals is i think sadly mistaken.

Is it a sad commentary on the state on today's students or about the pathetic condition education is toady i cannot say because it is too big a subject for an ordinary mortal like me to comment on. But one thing is clear by putting such a mental stress on us the college is not gaining anything. They are doing just for the sake of compliance and meeting the deadlines. I only fear that if such a funda of just slogging to meet the deadlines and doing a patchy job of everything, i believe i would not be going too high on the corporate ladder.

I mean i really ponder over this question again and again but have never been able to come up with a definitive conclusion or a strategy to counter this. For the past 10 months that i have been i n a B-School, all that i have been doing is fire-fighting. I always think that ok from this week i shall plan my activities completely and stick to my schedule so that i can do justice to what i am supposed to do.

Justice to my job is one think i am very touchy upon. If i dont do justice to a particular task i feel i have cheated myself. But if the knid of work i am doing(read fire fighting) i am cheating myself everyday. How long can i continue this?

I need an answer and that answer is not forthcoming. These exams have just pulled the trigger wherein it was during these exams i realised the power of technology and team work. Why and How it is for your grey cells to exercise and come with an answer that too if one cares to find out.

A night to remember

Oh i am feeling so sleepy. But i am here to tell what i felt yesterday night. It was the farewel night and the night began with a bang atleast for me when we as a gang of four sat down and made it a point to bat out the opposition(read the waiters). i guess we were very much successful in doing so when the guy incharge of food started rationing the gulab jamoons. How many i had i dont dare to count. But the fact was the food was never ending. New items were added every 10 minutes so anyone who finished his dinner early misssed out on those delicacies. Me tho was fully into hogging. Itna khaya ki nasha chad gayi. I realised for the first time that food can be intoxicating.

As the night wore along and the crowds started thinning, the DJ started some beutiful hindi nos. My god that was the best time and the last half hour was just too good. Sala DJ ne bahut senti gana bajaya.

I just met a senior from my School Sainik School Bijapur. He is 25 years senior to me, yes 25 years senior to me and what more he is a Lt.Col. doing what in SIBM? He is doing his MBA in HR from SIMS. I might wonder why on earth did he wan to do an MBA and what this would do to him.

Apart from all this the primary purpose of this here is talk about the concern he showed about the apathy of students of MBA, how unwilling are they to study the subjects that they have choosen to make a career of.

Here i am who has decided to invest 2 years of my valuable time to learn something that would give a real value add. It is just not my time that i have invested here but the fact that i have not taken up my first job that was offering me a princely sum of 2.5 lakhs. Although this amount looks megre in comparision to what i expect to get after this course i begin to wonder at times as to if i am really worth the money the companies would be offering me.

As one of my friend who finished his MBA from a premier institute in India said to me, he said "According me MBA is the most fradulent degree awarded in the country". I had begun to wonder how this could be true. We always see people turning around companies making strategic decisions affecting the course of the companies being MBA's.

After wondering about his statement fo almost a year and spending one full year in an MBA course, i have formed my own opinions. I believe MBA has given me a great perspective. A good launch pad or to use a jargon "a strategic inflection point" in my life to the way i look at life and towards everyting i do. The way we look at things has been changed for ever.

But is this sufficient for one to jump up his salary expectation 4 fold? If yes no further questions. But if this is not enough then what is that one thing that makes us eligible to even dream of figures that as non MBA's we could have never thought of?

I think the one thing that makes stand poles apart from others is "confidence". But how on earth this course gives you confidence? I believe it is the kind of content that you build here that gives us the ammunition to face the world. If content is the ammunition that would help us win the war, and no amount of strategy would help us in the battle if we do not have the required ammunition to fight then how do we forget this basic fact within 6-8 months into an MBA course. Why do we develop a confidence of saying that we can "faff" our way through to glory?

Why do we get into a rat race of adding CV points that would make our resume look diferent. Even if it is just for the heck of it. Agreed that to break the clutter you need to be different, we need to understand the fact that being different is just a means to achieving our larger GOAL. But is it right to have "being different" itself as our all encompassing GOAL?

We migh tdo good if we sit out and write out a mission statement for ourself just like Tom Cruise did in Jerry Mcquire (is my spelling right?) and am i right in asking others. For that matter i do not have a mission statement for myself. Let me start to write one.

I think things are now getting out of my hand. Let me stop mow. Shall continue.......