Its been 1.5 yrs now

Its been 1.5 years since I last sat in a classroom and listened to a lecture. I chanced upon my own blog after a really long time. No new posts added after the post on ‘The last lecture’. Well how do i describe these 1.5 years since my MBA ? Eventful ? hectic ? Uninteresting ?.’; Well i think it doesn’t necessarily have to be labelled as good or bad. One of my friend always says ‘Interesting’ when asked ‘how’s life?’. I think it is a very appropriate answer considering that there will always be certain things which form your comfort zone and certain other things which expand it. Talking about my comfort zone, it certainly is Bangalore. How nice can a city be ? It has the typical hustle and bustle of a city with a soothing touch of equanimity. Offers me plenty of eateries to choose from. The weather is cozy. And best of all, I get to go home whenever I feel like. Of course, pollution and traffic are the major issues in the city.Oh yes, I was supposed to say a word or two about my Job also. I visualize a day when the word  ‘Job’ is being used as an adjective. People should get over the habit of taking help of other adjectives to describe their job as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. A ‘Job’ is a job. It is supposed to be like a Job. It is up to us to make it interesting. So lets not focus too much on the Job aspect. To sum up this brief post, it is actually an humble attempt to get back to writing. To stir up the emotions which often gets buried when left unattended. I hope to be more active here, to capture the niceties of life in words and share it with people around. Happy blogging !!!!!

Last class of my m.b.a – a live classroom experience

This is live from my classroom which has accommodated me for nearly 1.5 years. As usual I am hooked onto my laptop unmindful of what is happening in the class.Last bench, laptop covering my face, a tropicana juice by my side, sitting in the chair in a completely relaxed couched position, people to my left and right completely lost in their own world, the class topper sitting exactly opposite to me and asking questions. Doesn’t the sight look familiar? When I suddenly look up, I see the professor speaking in a completely animated manner, the class toppers who pay keen attention to whatever he says, making sure they dont even miss a cough by the professor and listening with such intent. Almost 1.5 years have gone by but the sight is yet so familiar.In these years, the markets have changed, economy has opened up yet again, foreign investments are pouring in, a complete turmoil has come and gone in these 1.5 years, the entire globe melted down and seems like it is solidifying again. But people in my class haven’t changed, attitudes haven’t changed. The people who are in dean’s top 20 don’t want to let go of their position after having worked so hard. The people at bottom 20 tell themselves “I didn’t give a damn when everyone else was racing for marks. Now that my placements are done and I am assured a salary of 14+ lacs, why should I even make an attempt. What about my individuality then?” I am not sure if it is the level of comfort you gain with your rank and position in the batch, the recognition you get for what you are, the association which you have with people who share your range of ranks which inhibits you from changing your style of approach to academics.

I came 10 mins late for my first class at SPJ. Top 10 b school, the launch pad of a great corporate career ahead, some of the best professors in India waiting for me to enter the class, the last bench exclusively for me with exquisite rotational comforts, 90 top talented people who have got used to topping their school and college exams with inimitable ease topped with great talent in extra curricular activities as well (remember writing “represented national level tournaments in TT in under 16 category for india?” in the SPJ form) looking at me withe disdain for coming late. All these things just didn’t seem to matter in front of that 10 mins of extra sleep which I wanted to reward myself with. N today though it is the last class, I still came 15 mins late. It is suprising to note that things are still the same. The resumes of people have got even better ( Yeah!! Latest addition- Won a bschool competition at IIM A). Things are still very serious. Lecturers coming on weekends after taming the stock market bull over the weekdays and telling us how to do so. But again, I am simply not overwhelmed by this. Tropicana juice is still there, laptop is still open and whats more “I am blogging now from the class room” :).

On this final day of lecture, I wish to express my gratitude to last benches, people who accompany me in last benches consistently, the other people who occupy the front benches and keep the back benches vacant for me. The last benches have always been available for me accepting me for whatever I am, whatever inefficiencies I possess and giving me the best possible view of the class without the professor being able to spot me. I also want to thank my professors. Some of them have been really great bringing in not just knowledge but a plethora of other intangible things which inspires a person to listen and even emulate them in life. Also some of them have been so bad complementing those good ones so well that it instantly conveys a message especially to the last benchers to relax and do their more important personal work.( Doesn’t it come exactly at the time you want? I wonder). Finally my sincere thanks to all the course coordinators for saving me from attendance shortages and helping me pass the course. The acad group mates, my friends and all those who have made my class room experience at SPJain memorable, i bid adieu and wish u good luck!!! May be we ll all meet in some major corporate conference somewhere in Geneva? If that happens, do check out the last bench. I might just be sitting there, of course with juice bottle to my side 🙂

Need I ask more??

The past few days of my life has been an expression of joy and happiness..wow it pleases me when i see the days competing against each other to give me blissful experiences…I guess the stars are busy aligning themselves to make things favorable for me..and of course with kriya, pranayams and sahaj the mind can only grow to become more and more strong and peaceful..a typical day starts with getting up at a time when sun is blazing at its peak..the alarm seems to have lost its merit as it just facilitates me in changing my direction of sleep..Taking its own time, when every cell in my body conveys the message to my brain that it has had enough rest and can be active for few more hours before it gets its next break, my eyes open and I smile :).. The mind is still blank as it knows that it doesn’t have anything to do beyond brushing the teeth..Since my quest for adding on at least 5 kgs in the next four months has taken deep rooted conviction, I don’t skip my breakfast even if it is past 11 though we might always argue that it is lunch time..

Whats so special that I write something out of nowhere ? Its like if someone up in the heaven comes down and asks me “how do you want your day to be like?”, what would I say? A day where I can get up anytime, play TT, badmiton, tennis and cricket for as many hours as I want, meditate and listen to knowledge at my own pace without having to open the corner of my eyes to check the time during meditation, listen to music, chat with friends both offline and online, read novels at leisure and go out occasionally for food ? You heard me right, I am experiencing every single of these bounties :)…perhaps there are miles to go before I wake up :)..

Contrast this with a dull month of december where I had just finished my internship with the so called world’s top investment bank… So much full of confusion as to where I really wanted to head towards and so little time left to decide..I knew I would get a break from this torture and yes, the break did come in the form of winter break in AOL..more about art of living advanced course in a different post…Coming back, I really didn’t want to end up being in a job which I could never associate myself with..I was deeply inclined towards renewable energy but would I get an opportunity to work in this space?? Thoughts were bombarding me but somewhere deep inside I knew things will fall in place….N boy!!! doesn’t the universe listen to me?? It is not so much about getting what you want but it is about appreciating the way the nature/divinity works that amazes me..it is about getting the strength to accept what is given and hope for what you want.. and it is but a pure blessing to be able to spend a life full of devotion and awe at this marvel…Imagine if we can separate ourselves from the happenings of our day to day life, remove the ‘I’ element and just be a witness to this marvel..Imagine moving from a space of “what can I get” to “what can I give”?.Will life not become a celebration where we cannot help but dance?? Will those so called dark days not shape us up and build potential in us to face tougher situations which we never knew we could ?? If you don’t believe it, may be you should try :)…

Finally an awesome quotation from the movie “American beauty”…
It’s hard to stay mad when there is so much of beauty in this world……
sometimes I feel that I am seeing it all at once …… and it is too much for me to take it ………
My heart fills up like a balloon that is about to burst ……..
and then I remember…remember to surrender and stop trying to hold on to it ………
and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for the every single moment of my little life……….

It is almost 2.30 in the night when I am writing this..Physically it might be time to sleep but is it not high time we all wake up spiritually?? think about it..good night!!!!

A day to remember

I grew up watching dravid leave the ball outside the off stump in an inimitable fashion..Sachin play the straight drive as if the ball designed the trajectory of a straight line, Ganguly play his favorite on drive and manage to find the gaps at impossible angles and ofcourse Laxman who would play with simple authority and decide the destination of every single ball bowled to him…

Cricket is fun to watch because it is not just a game of talent and flamboyance but it involves huge mental strength..And I have noticed that when I watch cricket with great enthusiam, that generally means I am happy in life….And the 5th day of the first bordor gavaskar trophy test match brought out the enthusiasm in me which was hitherto missing…It was the same enthusiasm which I had when sachin was pelting the australians at sharjah, when Ajay jadeja hit waqar younis for 20 odd runs in an over in the quarter finals of 1996 worlcup, when sachin and sehwag were ripping apart the pakistani attack in the 2003 world cup and so many other matches..

Having said that, the credit should go to laxman because he brought out the interest in me which had become subdued for so many years… When laxman flicked a shot delivery outside off stump with authority , I realised that I found the missing link…It was cricket which i always used to enjoy which I was missing from my life..Just checking the score occasionally in cricinfo can just not match up to the fun of sitting and watching a cricket match with your family in television…I remember how I used to feel the load when India was in trouble or how I would feel oppressed by the burden of expectations placed on dravid…I remember how I used to leave the ball outside off stump just like dravid and even copy his hair style…I very vividly remember how I used to shout at people in my house just because dravid hadn’t scored….

On this day, when Laxman almost single handedly took india home, I told myself, I am getting back. I am going to watch this game and follow it like how I used to do when I was young..Today the times have changed, You see a Raina pulling a good length ball, a yuvraj improvising on a perfectly bowled in swinger or a dhoni playing a helicopter shot..Even though cricket has become more of an entertainment than a game appreciated only by the connoisseurs of the sport, the class of dravid, sachin and laxman still remain….And it is this that I seek in my life….To the world of Cricket-> I am back!!!!!!

The Promise

Whatever I am, Whatever I hope to be, I owe it to art of living and my guru,Sri Sri RaviShankar. These are my favourite lines from my master.

If I had to promise you something, what would it be?

I can’t promise that you would always be comfortable…Because comfort brings boredom and discomfort.

I can’t promise that all your desires will be fulfilled…Because desires whether fulfilled or unfulfilled bring frustration.

I can’t promise that there will always be good times…Because it is the tough times that make us appreciate joy.

I can’t promise that we will be rich or famous or powerful…Because they can all be pathways to misery.

I can’t promise that we will always be together…Because it is separation that makes togetherness so wonderful.

Yet if you are willing to walk with me,
If you are willing to value love over everything else ~

I promise that this will be the most rich and fulfilling life possible.

I promise your life will be an eternal celebration,

I promise you I will cherish you more than a king cherishes his crown,

And I shall love you more than a mother loves her newborn.

If you are willing to walk into my arms,

If you are willing to live in my heart,

You will find the one you have waited forever….

You will meet yourself in my arms…

I promise.

By Poojya Guruji
– H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Rules for having a pizza and the important lessons to learn in life from it

This is a memoir-the experience of having pizza with one of my best friends, Venkatakrishnan a.k.a kitchu- written on Dec 12 2008
A call at 9 o clock in the night…
Kitchu- “Hey bharath..wat plans man..how about going out for dinner?” Bharath- “why not. But where?”. Kitchu – “Pizza Hut, Adyar in another 20 mins.” Bharath- “Double Ok”. Bharath @ Mom -“Mummy you yourself have that upma which you have made. I am going to have pizzas tonight “.

Before my mom could respond, I kick started my bike and vroomed away and exactly at the 20th minute, I was there at pizza hut. There are few things in life which contradict the law of deterioration …one such thing for me is Pizza. A Saturday night in December….cool wind mixed with the smell of melting cheese….the rattling sound of the knifes n fork on the porcelain plates….a rhythmic chore inside the stomach which had started to make noises….the tongue which had hitherto been in control, starts swirling around in the direction of the steam…..wow…wat an experience every time, even before eating them….here they come….right hot from the grill…and u react like the scooby dooooooo in cartoon network with eyes popping out and nose widening…what a smell…..roasted golden onions, juicy tomato’s, tangy olives… delicious capsicum…everything on the melting cheese…..i knew why u had a nose then. Showered the Italian seasonings on them…..then the chilly flakes….n a little sauce…..here goes the first bite….my my my……thats when i realized that pizza is much more than having a good dinner……..pizzas gave me realization…..n to wake ur tongue wen they become numb, have a cold Green Apple drink to compliment your pizza…soothing ur taste buds after every bite……

Eating pizzas is an experience….n there are a few laws for that….never take ur girl friend with u(in case u have one).n if u dont, this is the time to feel extremely lucky about it….they might be big distractions, u can neither concentrate on them nor the pizzas…but sit in a place where u can feast ur eyes with girls in the other table ;)…….go during weekends…preferably night….after 9 wen u have no other work to do and you know that a lazy sunday is awaiting you the next day…..take atleast 90 mins to eat……in a snails pace savoring every bite…When your mouth opens, the eye lids should close and when you finish a bite, take a deep breathe and relax…enjoy evry bite. knowing what u eat, guessing the ingredients ..by this time the dew in the green apple drink will be dripping out to let you know that you got to attend it..Every bite of the cheese crust pizza should be accompanied with just the right amount of the apple drink so that you make sure the drink stays with you till you finish the last bite of the pizza..I have seen people naively drink the beverage first and then eat pizza, drinking water in between.. Ignore them and do not follow them…they are just in the wrong place… If possible, write a complaint to the manager of the pizza hut to ban such people from entering and spoiling the sanctity of the place..

I ve had pizzas n number of times…but most recently is when, i realized why i liked them……well ppl may think wats there to describe so much about a pizza…..true…..its just a pizza…u have it….pay n come out….but only when u start realizing what you are doing you like it like never before……and that’s the point i want to convey….its not about pizzas…its not about the apple drink……its about the approach……yesterday was the first time i had a pizza giving my 100% to it . Every bite of it was new….every bite had a new taste….every sip had a new feeling……it was heart full…,n that makes the difference…. what ever we do in life esp the things which we like to do the most, if we do it giving it the fullest attention and concentration….every moment of life will be Bliss. A pizza taught me so much……this was a very small thought that came to me when i had a pizza yesterday…..it was an experience….and it was simply “wow”.

From “Bharath and Venkat”

Qualities of a Yogi

Copied from my AOL teacher’s blog 🙂

Qualities of a Yogi.

A yogi is moderate in activity and rest. Every baby is a yogi. And every Yogi is a baby. He is united with the universal spirit.

Anyone who is an expert will not get perturbed or disturbed in his area of expertise. A chef in a kitchen will move with ease and grace while cooking. Never clumsy or careless.

A Yogi moves with ease through life. He is graceful doing anything, because he has attained proficiency at the root of everything. He feels at home everywhere. His intuition works. This is the spiritual connection. Having attained this there is nothing else the yogi wants to gain in life. He will not worry or feel feverish about getting more. Problems don’t move him who has attained the highest.

When he gets things or loses somethings he is not affected. A yogi does not get blown away by fleeting moments because he realizes all is maya, illusion.

Never rely on emotions. They are momentary. No one cares about them. Base life on wisdom, on that which is not changing. Hook onto that which does not change.

Some good comes out of every mistake. Greatest endurance (tapasya) is tolerating stupidity. Your patience increases by enduring stupidity. While dealing with stupid people your communication improves. You either become frustrated or gain patience.

That which you reject, you feel is not a part of you. And that you appreciate you feel is a part of you.

Yogi is one who see’s every one as one self. You don’t want any one to think bad about you, similarly why would any one want you to feel bad about them. Such a yogi who wants to live happily and wants every one to be happy is the best.

Mind Matters!

You cannot control wind you can only predict it, the mind is like that, so what should you do? How can you make your mind your friend?

By dispassion and practice.

Mind goes towards pleasure- how long can you see something? How much can you eat? How much music can you listen to? How much sex can you have? How much money, fame or power can you have? None of these outside things give you great pleasure.

Capacity to experience through senses is very limited, but the desire to enjoy is unlimited. The way out is Vairagya or dispassion. (Raga is craving and Vairagya means I am satisfied).

You need to cleanse the system and remove negative thoughts. For the intellect Knowledge and wisdom is needed, for emotions it is music and for the body ayurveda and some massage.

Anyone who does anything good will never suffer. As much good as you have done that much you will enjoy. If one doesn’t find perfection now he enjoys a comfortable position in the other world and is reborn in a well to do family or in a yogi’s family. Our karmas take us in those direction and at some point of time those impressions will carry them to finish the journey. There are many life times. Sadhana is the real currency!

Greatest role one can take is that of a yogi. He is better than someone who does a lot of work. Yogi is higher than a wise man, an ascetic or a scholar. A yogi knows intuitively, in his vibration there is love. With faith if you understand this, you are the greatest.

Jai Gurudeva!

love

bawa

Stay Hungry!Stay Foolish! But Stay Away from “Corp Val”

This is a kind of satire, a random rumination, a story with exaggeration which captures my growth from a world of concrete realities to abstract possibilities,a peep into the world of finance faced by a second year finance graduate at SPJAIN. Some people call it “corporate valuation” valuating it fully with emphasis on the word “Valuation”, some people call it with a pet name “corp val” as if that is going to make it any less vicious and some people vent their frustration by rightly calling it “corpse val”. My experience with this subject is dated back to 1st week of June 2010 and I am not going to forget this for some decades to come. On a fine sunny morning when everything looked normal, little did I know that a personal financial crisis was waiting to happen. A bespectacled man in his mid 50s walked into the classroom to take us through a roller coaster ride which would leave my hair straightened without applying any gel. It wasn’t all that bad in the beginning. The course started with just a simple question “What is Value?” But when the course ended I had just one complicated question in my mind “What the hell is happening in my life?”. How can a course take me from such a seemingly innocuous objective question to such a philosophically challenging subjective question?” I wondered . This is the story of my “tryst with equity” and borrowing Jawaharlal Nehru’s quotes in his famous tryst with destiny speech “At the stroke of the midnight hour, when SPJAIN sleeps,I awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a finance graduate, long suppressed, finds utterance”. I instantly recognized this speech, found the depth of its meaning and the relevance of this quote because it is on this day (3rd SEPTEMBER 2010 ), the day I bid adieu to this monster called Corporate Valuation that I realize what is freedom and what is value.

It all started so very normally.I had a few decent outings in the initial few session with familiar terms like WACC, Beta etc. But it wasn’t all that romantic going forward. The pre reads were vast which meant that some of them had to become post reads. Simple logic would suggest that when pre reads become post reads, the additional reading becomes a mockery.Though we had only 2 lectures in a week, that too on a Friday with Thursday being a holiday, the power of the subject was such that I felt haunted by the lectures which already happened and daunted by the lectures which were going to happen. There was something strange about this subject. Was it that everyone chose to undergo the pain even though it was an elective or was it the use of the sophisticated instrument (real time notes taken by sir with an electronic pen which magically gets displayed in the screen), was it the possibility of getting a negative share price after hours of number crunching or was it the finance hot shots in the class who would make statements which would leave me wondering if it was a doubt, allegation, view or a simple statement? I really don’t know. I asked myself “How do people figure out this subject “? By scratching their forehead or by bouncing on their toes or is it by saying “tut tut tut” periodically? Is their a separate language to communicate with numbers? Finally,I Just had two very important questions to all those people who relished Corp Val “What do you do and How do you do?”.

Four days prior to our phase I submission there was a buzz among finance students in the hostel. Casually when I came back from dinner to dive into my bed, I realized that all the postponements I had made, all the pre readings I had skipped and skimmed as if checking the quality of the paper, all the additional readings which I had considered as tissue papers, all the excel sheet models where entering a value in one cell would impact the share price and some other random cell in some other sheet( luckily within the same excel file) were waiting to prey on me in a big way. “It is time to pull up our socks and work hard” told my group mate for whom I reserve huge respect for his ability to scratch his hair and smile at the same time. Disaster stuck when my group mate on whom we were relying heavily fell sick just 2 days before the submission. Murphy says “If something can go wrong, It will”. I rephrased it as “If something can go right, It wont” . Sleepless nights, stimulants in the form of coffee and cracking jokes at odd hours saw us submitting the famed excel file and word document with the stamp of “Group 1” on it.This was followed by 2 cases where we had to discuss the insights in the class and submit it. It turned out to be a typical reading comprehension exercise for me where the basic assumption was “Insights are already given in the case. It is just about identifying them” . Phase 2 was no different. The same sequence of events followed. After a month or so, we managed to complete our phase 2 exercise and ‘send’ it. The ‘send’ button in the mail not just sent the file, but it sent us to a world of freedom and possibilities, of choice where basic human rights still existed and this was the “moment of truth” in my life.

Not long after “Picture abhi bhi bhaki hai mere dost” echoed in my ears. I wondered “How futile is it to kill a person who is already planning to commit suicide?” I always knew every story will have a climax but I realized that in a story full of climax, there will be an anti climax. Just when we thought we successfully passed through the toughest course in M.B.A, a rough jolt came out of the blue in the form of an End Term exam. I was reasonably confident about the subject after the interview preparation. Some how the cells in the brain which used to cringe on hearing terms like asset beta, black sholes model etc seemed to have developed a natural shock absorber. But the end term paper experience was worth a Harvard Case Study on “Human emotions under extreme conditions”. The journey from Q1 to Q5 which was fraught with riddles and concepts, took me from a familiar world of “Fill in the blanks” to an unfamiliar territory of “Fill in the sentences”. It aggravated my eye flu and my eye balls were jumping up and down in disbelief. I didn’t know whether to open the book, the file or the hand outs because it was like asking an uneducated person whether he likes Greek, Latin or Spanish. I was reminded of my child hood days when I used to be an expert in book cricket. The blessing in disguise came in the form of questions like “Whether or not you agree with the author” . It didn’t take me more than a split second to realize that when an esteemed author takes a view and writes an article which gets published in forbes magazine, “How the hell can I, writing an end term in the corner of a dilapidated building, take an opposite view and oppose him?” Common sense prevailed and I emphasized (in both active and passive voice) that I agree with the author. When the question paper and the answer paper( both being the same in this case) was taken back after an hour of arduous struggle, I knew that I had gone through what they call “Corpse Valuation” . When I came out, I felt numb.

May be this was it, May be this was the hardest course I have ever faced in my educational career and May be this would mark my entry into a world of challenges and opportunities. It tested my capability, it tested my patience and It tested my will. I instantly felt like throwing the hat up in the air like how they do in a graduation ceremony. But somewhere ages hence, May be I would not be wrong in advising the next generation “Stay Hungry!Stay Foolish! But PLEASE Stay Away from “Corp Val””.

A critique on placements at B school

I am writing this with pain, with genuine sadness and with emotions running high. The only way for me to vent out my frustration is through writing. If I go and talk to someone regarding this, I would hear them say the word “professional” which would put me off. Because what I see is not a march to success or a step in the right direction but a race to stamp the identity on the most attractive offer, a race to wear the coat and become a manager, a race to dethrone others and enthrone your ego, a race marred by competitive spirits, killer instincts and a heartless pursuit. This race is called placements and I witnessed the first ever placement season in an m.b.a college. My spirits are dampened, my head is spinning in all the 3 dimensions and I am nursing my wounds. I don’t call this education; I call it transactional business where right from day 1 to the day of placements in an m.b.a college, you shape every movement of your life in such a way that everything fits into the resume strictly within the border guidelines prescribed in a standard format of a resume. May be I am a hypocrite who is speaking all this after getting placed. But this is my personal space and I am free to express my opinions (Yeah rite!!! I learnt this aggressive way of speaking through GDs. What a leadership quality!!!!). Initially, I didn’t even congratulate people after they got placed because I always had a feeling that everything is the same and everyone will be equally good or bad beyond a period of time. I realised the gravity of the situation when people came over and congratulated me heartily after I got placed. May be I was being rude to them. But then I just gave the placement process the importance it deserved. Am I acting too smart? Am I doing the right thing? I have no idea at all.
Being in the green room was like being in a frying pan for me. I was left wondering, if all this is worth this much of importance. I saluted Thomas Jefferson who had said “Happiness is something which can only be pursued and can never be obtained” in his famous declaration of independence speech. I didn’t feel like consoling people. I didn’t feel like going and giving a pep talk. But I wished them good luck. I wished them that they get out of the green room as soon as possible. I noticed that the breadth of the smile was being proportional to the package obtained and the brand value added to the kitty (oops!! Sorry resume). May be all this philosophical thought means nothing to most people. At the end of the day, they will have dinner with napkins spread over their lap and a soup which is emanating steam giving warmth to their faces and a cushion to their smile. May be fools are people like me who think deeply about life and end up washing their hands in the wash basin instead of washing it in a lemon bowl in the table. But then, my disposition is towards deep thinking and that is why I am the way I am. I had followed the system like a march past on a physical training ground, so strictly that I had come to believe there were only two ways of standing (attention and stand at ease). But once I came to do my m.b.a, I couldn’t help but think against the system of education. That is when I questioned the system; I kicked all the processes and boycotted almost everything in my own little way. May be I am being stupid. May be I am a misfit to this entire system of M.B.A. If you say so, I will acknowledge. After spending 8 lacs on education, was it worth doing all this? I have no idea at all.
I feel there is nothing glorious in selling soaps or beautifying an excel sheet with numbers. There is nothing glorious about building networks by operating a blackberry. May be my friend was right when he quoted “Life was simple when apples and blackberries were just fruits”. This placement process has given me no real kick. It has run me through varied emotions of people. But one thing which this placement process has definitely revealed is the real personality of people. It has strip off all the farcical attributes of a person and exposed the real one. I saw people who can be balanced, maintain their calm. I saw people who can smile and be as normal as possible even if you tell them they are not shortlisted. I saw people who could ask feedback as to where they were going wrong without being dejected. I saw people who could hold their nerves. I witnessed the placement committee who worked tirelessly for the other’s placement placing them ahead of their own career. And according to me, this is the real sign of success. This is what winner’s in life are made up of. And these are the people whom I value the most and would aspire to emulate. They are my role models.Dicky Fox in the movie Jerry Maguire says”Hey, I don’t have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success” . This is what this placement process has shown me. It has given me the real meaning of success. “It is the ability to stay calm and unperturbed in the face of both the impostors namely success and failure”.Again if you ask me if I am just trying to be poetic, I am going to tell you –“I have no idea at all”.

Passion

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference”

Robert Frost ends his famous “road not taken” poem with a thump. Even after many years these lines seem to reverberate, creating a sense of awe on the profundity of his thought. There have been many motivational speakers and self help books which have stated so called “winning” quotes that are soothing to the heart and are worthy of uploading in social networking sites. Our friend Shiv khera who is the author of “You can win” is a classic example of this. I feel he can motivate people even to spend quality time in the loo saying “Some of the most essential things in life can just not wait to happen. What can be done later should be done now.” Another famous person “Robin Sharma” with his monk who sold his Ferrari series has made a killing out of selling his books and bought himself a Ferrari. Though all these sound good (not exactly in the context of going to the loo), I feel few have been able to convey the kind of deeper meaning which Frost has done in those few lines. Now this brings me to the topic close to my heart and which I value the most. It is called “Passion”

I do not know if is a notion, a false belief or a thorough miscalculation, but i have started to believe that anything done without some level of enthusiasm and passion is not worth doing at all. Please refrain from saying “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the number of moments that take our breath away..blah blah”. I am seriously tired of such cliches. Coming to the point, What makes me believe so and why have I developed such a strong association with the word “Passion”

Of late my m.b.a school is exposing me to lot of guest lecturers. Some of them are a bunch of jokers who wear a black berry coat on a sunny afternoon and run us through PPTs which resemble the “made in china” products-(cheap and flashy). They either have a very serious expression or a completely fake smile. They follow what is called dispassion(forced to exhibit passion which just refuses to come from within). Some of the talks are so depressing that it makes me wonder whether the black color coat which they are forced to wear is actually a sign of mourning. These are the people who are intelligent, who have achieved some level of corporate success, who have lived their life fairly comfortably( strictly in monetary terms) and retire as vice president with unfulfilling dreams of becoming a boss( because even vice president has president as the boss).As you would have guessed, I am talking about people whose soul purpose in life is to find arbitrage opportunity in the financial market using their intelligence, make good money only to buy a costlier tie and a coat and give more painful presentations. What I fail to understand is, where is the question of passion? I feel like breathing down their throat and asking them-“Is your soul motto of earning so much money, to take your girl/boy friend out to a pub on the coming saturday evening? Or is it to wear your costly coat on a wedding reception to attract the eyes of the relatives who ask you for tips for their children aspiring to do an m.b.a? Or is it to find a life patner who is attracted by the designation and formal style of dressing unmindful of the fact that your heart beats arrythmically inside, pumping blood in accordance with the movement of the sensex? Or are you one of those warming the couch types who come to this world, run the race even if it means in the opposite direction and reach the finishing line only to note that it is where you started? or are you one of those who wonder in your death beds as to what you have done incorrectly (correclty rather) and wish for a chance to go back?”. I reserve my respect for people who do things with passion and belongingness and also to people who do things out of lack of choice. But majority of the people seem to feed themselves with self inflicted pain and spread the pain through the PPTs to all the aspiring pain takers. I just hope that I too wouldn’t become a volunteer in this self pain inflicting ceremony atleast in the long run.

But then not everything in life is so bleak and not everyone is a joker. I met a person, who came in a very informal manner,had no PPTs, but gave a kind of speech which left us with goosebumps. He is our alumni and the CEO of merit track. In my subsequent post i will right about this amazing person and what he has got to say.

Robert frost might not have gone through a painful corporate career and presentations to arrive at the conclusion. But may be he is right when he says

“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference”