2014

Summarising anything is always a difficult thing to do; but I’ll try to do so for the whole year here. Worth a shot, for it has been the strangest, scariest and sweetest year so far in Bangalore. Let’s just say that, when I am old, like 45ish old, I’ll sit back and reminisce this particular year, the year when I got my shit together and brought much needed changes in myself. I think the better way to put forward would be to write the lessons I learnt from the grand failures that I had. So here goes the list.

Morality is over-rated:

Aisi harkate karoge to sharma ji kya kahenge!

Don’t drink, Don’t smoke, Don’t do adultery, Don’t drive fast, Don’t lie, Don’t eat cheese etc. and so on. We define ourselves by the things we don’t like and judge others on things we don’t dare to do. In short, our inner moral-self restrains us, defeats us and makes us mediocre. So, what divine epiphany occurred in 2014, that I am giving anti-moral lessons here?

Lot many! 

I came to a realisation that in this rat race that we run, being a “good” person doesn't really take you far. You may have an obligation to your family, you may have seen your relative die of lung cancer, but none of it should change the way you treat your life. I have seen the smartest people being the biggest drinkers and best managers being the best liars! Picking up the lessons, I did have my own bizarre experiences this year! And the experiences indeed opened my eyes to a wider and different perspective on life!

Hardwork always pays off!? Not really! Just go with the flow

Working your ass off is always better than not doing anything at all. But I was strong believer that if you work really hard for something, you’ll get the results. Well I experienced the opposite. No, I am not preaching that “hard work” v/s “smart work” lesson here. The thing I experienced was that hard work is relative. If you want to achieve something, 10 more people are working hard for the same thing. You may have worked really hard for that “something” but 9 other people might have worked harder. So how do you deal with it?

Well I don’t know!.

The only thing that I can say is that I had a series of failures starting from CAT 2012. I was never the kind of guy, who would go to exams unprepared. I never liked to boast that I can crack some exam without studying for it. I prepared hard for CAT’2012, got the least percentile among my friends. I got frustrated and annoyed, studied very hard for CAT’2013 again and failed even more spectacularly there. I had lost faith that hard-work pays off. I recollected and started the GMAT preparation again. I stayed alone in my flat for 3 months, studied like a pig for 6 months, gave GMAT again, choked up, cancelled the score, came back and studied again for a month and finally , when I had become too numb for any score, any success, I got the god damn 710. A hard earned, mediocre 710!

If things outside office were not enough, I had equal entertainment awaiting in office. My mentor resigned, my business unit head resigned, my entire marketing team resigned and I was left alone. New management, new people around me, even bigger responsibilities to handle and no imminent pay hikes. I felt like, laughing at my own condition. It was hilarious, I would have laughed endlessly as a spectator to this drama, but Alas! I was the audience and I was the actor! The joke was on me!

Finally, on 1^st Oct 2014, I decided to hang my boots (rather cooling my soldering iron, would be better analogy for an embedded engineer). On that decisive day, I roamed around the entire Peenya campus. It was 7pm in the evening, Bangalore breeze was at its flirtatious best and without a second thought… I resigned.

Best judgement call ever!

In Oct, 10 days after I resigned, I got the interview call from ISB (Indian school of business), a dream college, and the reason why I started giving GMAT. Practically ISB would solve my all problems, I would stay in India, I would complete my MBA in one year (come at par with other people, who left a year before me) and also provide the best possible post MBA package in the country. I prepared hard for the interview, I became obsessive about details, I read boring reports on economics, I read articles on India’s energy problems and recorded myself repeatedly to prepare for the interviews. The interview was on 2^nd November, I enjoyed the interview, it was fun and I came out supremely confident and satisfied.

14^th November’2014.

I still had nothing in my hand. Half my notice period days were over. I was checking emails every 5 minutes, nervous and anxious. I reached home, saw the pagal guy notifications, the results had come!

I opened the portal, my eyes scanned directly at the bottom and there it was “Congratulations….

Do you think, I even read what followed? NOOO

I just swore loudly in HINDI! And that’s it I felt that Bangalore story was reaching its conclusion!

Be a little Selfish! Don’t make that girl the focus of your life or don’t take that exam as the life defining thing for yourself.

I came to realise why the forum “Pagal-guy” is called that way. The answer is that people are literally mad. I have come across people who are absolutely obsessed about MBA’s. I am the wrong person to preach this, having myself being so fanatic about it. But the Linkin park song “In the end… It doesn't even matter” makes even more sense now than ever. Try something, be it exam such as MBA or GRE or GATE, Try harder if it doesn't happen, but leave it if you believe that it’s not your cup of tea. Part of being a man is to realise what your weaknesses are and making the best out of what you have. Think harder there is always an alternative!

This approach is much cooler!

Hesitating to ask that long time crush out? Fear of rejection creeping in? Well good! That’s normal. But what is not normal is sitting with your feelings and not doing anything about it. Don’t be in a friend-zone! Ask that girl out. What if she says NO!? Well ask her why? If she has a reason, try to do something about it. If she doesn't have any reasons to not like you then why you are so obsessed about her! Move on, grow a little male ego for yourself. Well if it’s neither yes nor no. Boss you have got a shot! But it might be a nicer way for her to say “No” to you. Still work on it. Don’t just give up. Walk the extra mile, if you think she is the right person. If still it doesn't work out. Move on! What is the worse that could happen? You will find another girl and just repeat the steps.

Haven’t worked for me but who knows, it might just as well work out for others. :)

Okay, conclusion time. Well it’s already 2015, when I’ll be posting this blog, but nonetheless staying on course with the topic- an eventful year, for once I completed my New Year resolutions (all three of them) and as I go forward, things look optimistic. I do wish that I weighed 10 kg s less and had atleast 4-6 abs (abs should be in even no’s- don’t judge me!) but there is always 2015 for that. So no cheesy lines to write here! Let’s see how the next year goes.

Tata.

And Here's the pic of the awesome time we had in Goa! Just for the heck of it!