It has just been eight months into this course, and I already feel like a misfit for the ‘other world’.
We the people…We are not like other specimens of the species, there are marked differences, and some of them are as follows:
At around 2:30 in the morning, when we are at our relaxed best, we remember some of our friends and family, whom we have not strung two sentences with in quite some time. We then proceed to call them up, only to be met with
o The phone ringing incessantly – no response (And you tell me that I don’t call ya! You don’t pick up the phone when I do!)
o A groggy voice, laden with sleep, pouring invectives down at us, for waking them up at that apparent ungodly hour (Gosh! What sorta lifeless morons go to sleep before 3!!?)
o Yeah, that’s about it.
We have an assignment submission, a ‘5 percent’ quiz to prepare for the next day, one project group meeting, one club meeting and a case to read and we think the day is ‘light’.
For us, every minute does count – we have a major submission exactly one week from now and we think – Wow! That’s a lot of time! I could probably write a thesis on the topic, travel the whole of India and come back to submit the thesis, in one week (if Jules Verne can travel the world in 80 days – we can do one better)!
CNN is on campus, so is Channel [V] – but we don’t have time for them. We are at the high end of the demand chain, due to the Life Cycle theory of expected ‘footage’.
We epitomize the concept of ‘Work hard, party harder’. After an L^2, the collective alcohol content coursing through our bodies can serve as the alternative fuel for all the nation’s 2 million cars.
The Great B-school Placement Process – it makes men out of boys. It is the kinda hammer that shatters glass, but forges steel. Everything about it – the concept, the preparations, the process, the way the operations are managed (It is like a mission being planned- days in advance, the anointed few hold mega meetings complete with floor plans, walkies, et al), the ability to continue to believe in yourself inspite of being disappointed, the ability to remain unscathed inspite of being ‘plucked’ early, the ability to bear injustices and retain perspective – all parts of an exercise that leaves a mark.
We speak in bullet points ;)
Inspite of all of this, life here is not so bad. The quantity of time you spend ‘chilling’ is in direct proportion to how ‘chilled out’ a person you yourself are.
And on a serious note, when one thinks of all that one has already learnt, the mind boggles – a place like this makes you discerning about who you should befriend, and who you should keep one-arm distance from; it cuts out the inefficiencies from your life and you are operating at maximum capacity – you learn that this figure is flexible, in direct relation to how strong your will power is and you learn how much to bend before the crack comes; it makes you acknowledge the fact that there is brilliance in many of us – it’s just a question of what you do with it, where you go with it; and most importantly, you learn how to face your own deficiencies and overcome them, instead of merely glossing over them, like you had been uptil now.
Finally, it fills you with hope – after going through the grind for these two years, life outside has gotta be better, right? Well, I, for one, know that it will be better. Not because it will be less hectic, or easier in any way. Most definitely not. But because I will be better equipped to deal with it. Two years here - is like being molded by fire.
