Not Just Another Brick in the Wall

I’m in a business school. Within the four walls of this “launching pad”, so to say, solutions and explanations are being hammered into our benign minds, ready to give a “fresh beginning” to our careers. (One very oft expressed assumption, not entirely inaccurately though, is that most of the students who have a work experience prior to coming to the b-school just wanted to change the sectors that they were working in). We are finally getting to make head from tail of the jargon that the newspapers like The Economic Times are full of. (The dull orange colour of the newspaper is ubiquitous; it is to be seen everywhere in this campus – the mess, the classrooms, the library, and sometimes even the poorly lit corners, perfect for the couples, can be found with the dull orange lying in a corner). But still, after so much of an effort, it is strange how perfect understanding of some topic always seems one step away – the closer you come, the further away it flits. Having subjects like Macroeconomics for the semester helps, but you never find enough time to do stuff. I like playing guitar, writing, listening to music, reading lots of books, but never find “enough” time to pursue each of them. The word “enough” is by its very nature illusory, especially in the context of a b-school. 

One good thing about a b-school is that you find all varieties of people here. I would say to the extent that it is a perfect representative sample of human beings – not financially or taking their educational background into picture of course – but by their very nature. You will find the “loner”, who is into his books all the time and not giving two figs about team work, collaboration, leadership, and all such ideas that they keep talking about. You will find the “screamer”, one who is hyper-active almost all the time, who dares to shout his lungs out at 3:30 am in the morning in the halls of the hostel. You will find the “ideal”, the student everyone wants to be, who is academically strong, perceptively astute, street smart and one who earns good name for whichever institution he is associated with. You have the “irate”, the one who cribs about everything from the mess food to the dirt under his bed, from someone’s way of walking to the unfairness of the whole system. You have the “balanced”, the one who everyone can bank upon in times of distress, and who never gets angry, not even while driving (can you believe that?!). And believe you me, at the end of the day it is such people who give you a perspective about life and it is they who make the whole business school experience something to cherish. And contrary to what Roger Waters said in 1979, when it all ends, you won’t be just another brick in the wall.