Taking off in the MBA Flight

In the beginning of the movie Batman Begins, when Bruce Wayne finally scales the mountain and reaches Ra's al Ghul, he is huffing and panting.

Ra’s: Are you ready to begin?

Bruce: I… I can barely stand.

And then he gets kicked to the ground. A couple of more blows later, Bruce finally starts to defend himself, puts up a fight, and eventually faints.

This is the welcome a b-school gives to you, once you scale the mountain called CAT.

I wasn’t oblivious to this. I have heard friends talk about it. Most of you must’ve heard this too. But it’s not the same thing. It’s like the Matrix; you can’t be told what it is, you have to see it for yourself.

The first couple of weeks aren’t so bad though, when the only thing turning up the heat on you is the Sun. You walk around in campus, and survey the crowds for what IT guys would call leads and opportunities. There is an aroma of new found freedom in the air, and a proclivity towards being irresponsible. 

And then out of nowhere, you are expected to be athletes. A multitude of races are laid in front of you, and your mind starts to spin.

Clubs. Committees. Presentations. Exams. Competitions. CV. Placements. Placements. Placements.

On the very first day, I remember a line from the induction ceremony: “Most of you here; your lives have been graced with success till now. But beware; a lot of you will experience failure here in some way or the other.”

His words started making sense soon enough.

The feeling of complete worthlessness is a phase through which almost every MBA student has to pass. Regardless of what you have achieved before b-school, or how inhumanly talented you are, you will break. There is no escaping it. Winning all the races is out of question.

Yet the fact that some seemingly do better than others is undeniable. Some have that extra spurt of energy for whatever they do. In fact, experienced folks start feeling like a hundred years old, when kids fresh out of grad school run around and speak with over-exuberance. “Who’s that jumpy kid? I hate that bastard.”

Needless to say, extroverts run riot. Poor introverts, especially those who lack self-esteem, are left to question if they even deserve being here. I belong to the latter, and ended up with zero club/committee selections. A couple of selection tasks required me to online propaganda, or write boring articles with fancy words so that it is apt for a newspaper. I blatantly refused. In fact, most tasks will make you ask yourself, “Do I really want to do this? Is this really my thing?” Most of the people do it anyway. While some merely believe they can do it, others would see the incentive – CV points.

The importance of CV points is understandable, when you realize that your batch is full of people like you. It’s not class 9^th anymore, where you were the only one who could speak amazingly fluent English, or write poetry, play football, or play guitar, or have 90+ percent marks in 10^th and 12^th standard. Or even have all of the above. (Actually, not having 90+ percent marks is a crime you’ll pay dearly for throughout this life and the next seven or eight lives.)

I digress. Having gone through the turmoil of this first term, with an internship secured for next summer, I have realized one thing. One may call it a cliché, but that’s why they’re called clichés. They’re lessons we need to learn again and again.

What we have on our resumes doesn’t differentiate us. It’s our attitude that does.

MBA teaches us this critical lesson. Everyone’s paths will be crossed by falls and failure, regardless of your resume. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve broken down like a child myself. But I did not lose faith, thanks to the unbelievable support of my parents. When it mattered, especially during the summer placements, I had it together. It’s what Yoda from Star Wars would call the Force. The invisible shield that acts as a cocoon against all fear, doubt and disbelief; and keeps moving forward.

A word ought to be said about the people. We humans have always shown great unity in adversity, and it is no different for Term 1. Every 1^st year would agree that the seniors made a phenomenal effort to ease our burden, and we’re all encouraged to follow suit next year for our successors.

Life in MBA till now has been like an aircraft taking off, without its passengers wearing seatbelts. Our insides have been properly shaken and stirred, and the plane is now stabilizing into an auto-pilot mode. Hereon, we can either take control and choose our destiny, or sit back and stick with the auto-pilot.

Hereon, the world is at our feet. 

Thinking matters.

The inspiration to write comes to various people in various ways. For me, it comes when I have a really happy spike in my graph of life, or when I am blessed with a brilliant epiphany. This post is a result of a bit of both.

People who've been in touch with me recently know that I'm coming out of some tough times. I am tempted to use the word 'harrowing', but that seems like needless exaggeration now.

Everyone faces problems. It doesn't matter if you're the richest, wisest or strongest person on earth. You WILL face problems one way or the other.

I have a habit of overthinking, like I've mentioned in one of my previous posts. So I had this issue with my landlord, which was easy bait for my worrying head. It kept on amplifying it until it showed on my face, my work, and everything I do.

Most people told me I was being my usual paranoid self and I should stop worrying - the standard advice. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work for me. Knuckleheads like me need something eccentric to get shaken off the paranoia.

Whilst these crazy times, I watched Midnight in Paris. The next day, I couldn't help thinking about Owen Wilson, and how his idea of a book meant more than anything to him, to the extent of leading him to hallucinate about it. I marveled at how a man could get possessed by a singular thought and let it bring the best out of him. And that's when it hit me.


If there's one thing I learnt from the movie, it's that there are just too many things to think about in this world, of which only some matter. The rest are inconsequential.


I looked back at my thoughts over the past weeks, and realised how little it mattered, and how stupid I had been. That very moment I made a decision, and put it immediately out of my head.


If you give something a lot more thought than it needs, it will spread from your head like a virus throughout your body. If you let it, it will destroy you, like it almost did me. Trust me, I am not joking. An unpleasant thought can be more dangerous than any virus or bacteria. You might have Hrithik Roshan's abs or be Kareena Kapoor's nutritionist, but your physical health means squat if you're mentally unhealthy.


So just close your eyes for a moment, and think about everything that's worrying you right now. Now think again.


Would it really matter if you're unable to impress that girl?
If you lost a phone worth 30 grand, would crying about it get the phone back?
Are bad grades worth getting into chronic depression?


It might be easy for me to say it, but such thoughts are just not worth it. YOU are not worth it.
Sachin didn't utter a single word throughout the 100 centuries' drama, until he actually made it. Contrary to what people might say, I believe he's been able to do it because of his love for the game and the country. If he would've let the media and fans get to him more than it did, he'd have retired a long time back. But he never has, and never will.


Great people have achieved what they have, because they thought about the right things. They figured out what matters and what doesn't, which made all the difference.


Let your passion be the centre of your life, not your problems.