#True Actuality Realized - 3rd Semester Verse

[epitomees]

~ Takuto Maruki’s Tags ~

More will be added as necessary. 

[pranavthepp]

Last few days of college life : Part 2

I want this write up to be story like than like a flash back rhetoric which most of the story sounds like, hence I will emphasize more on what to do than what not to do in MBA, this should act like a template for you to follow if you ever intend to pursue MBA degree in your life.And if you have already done it , then this can be a good relatable story for you. I once again repeat that this template is entirely from my view and not as a standard or a norm which should be followed .So let’s begin with our 1 st lesson.

Lesson 1: All that glitters is not gold

As much ridicule now, then it was like the moment of happiness un-explainable. Well let’s just say that I was struggling with my admissions, and this turned out to be blessing in disguise. In just a blip the college began with so called Foundation Fortnight which in itself is a conundrum till date. It involved interacting with the business delegates making us sit in one place all day. Making the delegates sit in that impeccable auditorium and letting them deliver session was rather a nice ego boosting exercise for them and a nice way for college to market their students who probably had no sense of how really the businesses work. But then may be that is how our college does it’s branding exercise. No matter how absurd it sounded to us , it was a nice ice breaking session for us students. The friends made then became pals soon after.

You know how before buying a product you go through various media to know about the product, and then after evaluating you make a decision with your cognizance, similarly before taking admission in any college how mesmerized you are by the seeing the college and it’s brochure. It is only after you purchase you realize it is not the product you saw. It happens to everyone of us , don’t worry. 

When I said All that glitters is not gold , I was not referring to any false promises , what I was actually referring to was for you not to get carried away by just seeing the glitter. Coming back to the story, as our lectures commenced I learned that MBA was nothing like I anticipated , by that I mean that I thought there would be so much work to do that there wont be any time for leisure. See ,we Engineers are so much not used to the term leisure because it never existed for us, all throughout the semester all we did was either attend lectures or write assignments. So when it came to MBA I was on default Engineering mode wherein I was like Bring it on bi**ch , but sooner I realized that MBA was pretty chilled out , all time I had was leisure time.

Except for few subjects like Statistics , Marketing Principles,Financial management, Operations management all the other subjects were there just to exist, to give a nice analogy , remember between all the main subjects in the school we used to have a subject called EVS (Environmental Science) , which literally meant study leave for us, that is what rest of the subjects were to me in MBA. When I look back from here , I often ask myself this question , What did I really learn in my 2 yrs of MBA? And then chuckle at my own joke.

Lesson 2: Choose friends wisely

Now this may come across as a parental advice , but believe me it is not. Looking for right set of friends is as important exercise as looking for a partner. You check for the compatibility , you see if you’ll have similar liking , you see if you’ll gel well and then you go ahead with it. Now some argue that this necessarily may not be the case , You make friends naturally when you develop a good rapport with someone , yes that is true but that doesn’t necessarily mean you are choosing them wisely. One may develop a good rapport with a person who lives blithely and is way too casual about his/her life, but if your goals are non-aligned with the person then it doesn’t add value to you.

One may say that you don’t need to be calculative while making friends , I blatantly deny that , one should be. Qualities like Trust, Loyalty, Honesty always should come into picture while selecting friends and by friends I mean close friends and not just acquaintances. I always had categorized people I know in to four baskets.

1. Just Acquaintances : These people are there just to exist from your perspective, they may be your fellow classmates or batch mates. Keeping good relations with them is important but not necessary, it’s like not having any tiff with them and just maintaining a smiling face with them.

2. Important Acquaintances: Important acquaintances play a vital role and should be kept closer for they are the ones who come to your rescue when in need. You have to come out of your inhibitions to ensure you have a long lasting relationship with them despite of your not so good rapport with them. It can be your Professors, Lab Assistants, Secretary , Gen Sec of college, Placement cell etc.

3. Good Rapport: These are the ones you know well, and don’t mind hanging out with. You are comfortable working with them, and are compatible too. You maintain good relations with them so that mutually you’ll can help each other. It is also important to maintain Good rapport with them for you should not be left idle while making Project groups. To give you a example , one of my colleague was a quintessential sincere and smart guy, but when it came to forming project group he was picked last or so to say he never bothered to build a rapport with anyone. Essentially whenever it came to forming groups he was in soup.  So here being smart and sincere didn’t really help. It’s the hard truth of forming Groups for projects in MBA ; Your groups are not formed on the basis of merit but on basis of rapport between colleagues.  

4. Close Friends: These are essentially your lifelines in MBA without which your college would have no meaning. These are your 2am friends, where in you don’t put any clauses for being friends with them. And to have such friends , you need to put efforts. Yes, you heard right, efforts, because friendship is never one way, it is always a two way thing. And to showcase how much friendship means to you , you need to showcase it by caring and sacrificing to gain the stature of close friendship. There where lies sacrifices , lies true friendship. People respond to loyalty than anything else.

Lesson 3: Keep learning new things

My college follows a trimester pattern , which means we have three exams a year. In my 3rd Trimester , I decided to be a part time intern with one of the Crypto exchange based out of Delhi. To understand their business I had to go through basics of the technology which is used by Cryptos. It intrigued me so much so that I went through many research papers and citations to an extent where I myself decided to write a research paper on Blockchain technology. Sadly I couldn't complete it but the efforts of hundreds of hours put on the same didn’t go waste. It yielded me during my placement interviews.

The learning should not be restricted to academics, if you have a hobby, make sure you don’t stop it and give a serious thought to it. I would’ve never made my poetry public if it were not for my perseverance to perform on stage. I now know so much about verses and diction in poetry that I could’ve ever gotten if I were to stay only bookish. So don’t stop learning, be it enhancing your skills or hobby or knowledge.

Lesson 4: Don’t F**k around

You read that right , be clear of your goals while pursuing MBA. Don’t mess with your attendance and Professors . Lesson 2 and 3 will help you to not f**k around as long as you are willing not to. I used to constantly remind myself if any such thoughts of skipping lectures lingered around my mind, constantly reminding that I am shelling 2k each hour, and if I skip it , I am putting 4k in Gutter. Try to stay in good books of the professor and if not in good books then it’s better not to be in the books at all than being in bad books. I learned this lesson the hard way when I was almost failing in one of the subjects because of my relations with the Professor.

Lesson 5: MBA is about peers than about academia

Remember what I said about friendship in lesson 4 , well there is a reason to it. Most people forget the essence of doing MBA and keep their perspective limited to academia. What most people fail to realize is that, it is your peers who will one day be at a managerial positions of other companies and they are the ones would be of help in near future if you have to do business with their companies. 

Also majority of the leaning will happen outside the class, so when you have peers who are as curious and hungry as you are, then there will be development and grooming.

Lesson 6: Extra curricular is must

Extra curricular activities not only help you professionally but also personally. So participate in any credible competitions , there will be hundreds of competitions coming, but you’ve to choose which are the ones holding credibility in market. It helps you to get exposure to students from other colleges.

Lesson 7: Read as much as you can

There is so much to study about business administration that honestly speaking two years is not enough. Reading will help you to atleast get closer to that. And when I say reading I am referring to non-academic reading. Your library should be your second classroom.

Reading can be divided further into different categories:

1. News Papers/magazines : This will keep you updated about whereabouts of the industry and the business world. Sadly very few are able to keep up to it , so I suggest to atleast read from the app daily. I strongly would recommend not to read any times series of news papers like economic times, TOI, Times magzine etc , they speak the language of the ruling party which may not give you credible news. Read papers like The Hindu, Deccan Chronicles, Mint , Business standards , Business line.

2. Fiction: It is okay to read fictional books so to develop the habit of reading at a nascent stage where you are new to reading, Pick any fiction series you like , no reading is a waste of reading after all.

3. Non-fiction: This may include Management related books, a biography or an auto biography of a business tycoon may help you get a perspective and thus help you form your own opinion. Mind you having opinion is very important when it comes to MBA because if you don’t have any views or opinions of your own, you don’t have any direction.

Lesson 8: Real ideas come only at Chai Tapri

The only place which can replace a boardroom or a brainstorm room is chai tapri. Real ideas flow at chai tapri after sipping on some adrak ki chai. It may also happen that you may not be a chai or a coffee person but just to know what I mean to say, you need to accompany your friends at tapri. Most complex to complex problems have been solved so far at the tapri in these two years, the tapri is the life of any MBA graduate student so to say. To put an analogical reference , chai tapri is the counselor for students, it resolves complex to complex problems of students, we proudly call it chai ka katta.

So to just put together the experience of two years in a nutshell, the real learning in MBA happens outside the class. I am not being modest but these were my best two years of life, the people I met, the experience , the whole aura was worth the time. And as the saying goes That was one hell of a roller coaster. 

© 2018 pranavthepp