Ā Ā
19th April, 2019
All the 5 B-School interviews were done, so the performance and preparation pressure that had existed in my head since January was now fading away⦠making way for the extreme anxiety for the results! Though no result was expected that morning, what does a normal B-School aspirant want to look at, the moment he wakes up! His favourite social medium ā pagalguy! And the first post he sees: āNITIE results outā. When you have been on PG for long enough, you realise that it could be some idiot messing around especially when it was informed through official channels that results would be declared in May 1st week! But when you see the comments, reinforcing the news, your hands tremble and mind goes numb. The only thought? What the hell is my password?
19th April early morning around 9:30 am, I saw something that suddenly calmed the storm that had been brewing within me since Jan⦠since CAT⦠actually since I had first thought of doing an MBA from a top B-School and shuddered listening to the requirements of 99%ile and PORs, achievements and excellent academics! I had shuddered because I had 67% in graduation and had never really cared about PORs or out of the world achievements! The message displayed on the screen: āRegistration no⦠Name: Manas Rupainwar. Category: General. Merit Rank: 94. Congratulations!...ā.Ā
Well, no doubt that moment of calm was transient and pretty soon my mind was occupied with the anxiety about applying for loan, waiting for SJMSOM & MDI results, doubts about NITIE being good and whatnot! But in this journey of CAT, MBA, placements, and now soon to begin corporate life, Iāll always look back at that transient moment during difficult times, and feel hopeful about life! Through the journey ahead, there came a few more of such transient moments, a few minutes of calm after months of storm. Though these moments do not last long, isnāt these moments that we live for, strive for, hope for? They make you believe in life, hard work and destiny.
19th April, 2021
Today isnāt the day with one of those moments! Iāll be writing my last exam of MBA sitting at home feeling nothing in particular about the fact that my MBA life is ending today. We, the batch of 2021 didnāt have a tragic ending. That was faced by the batch of 2020 who after having spent an amazing MBA life in campus was suddenly asked to leave in mid-March a few weeks before their official last day. But us? We knew it was coming. We had already spent a good amount of time doing our MBA from home. We had internalised the tragedy that happened during our MBA and when we were again asked to leave the campus a few weeks before our official last day, we did that quietly knowing it was for the better. And it was that day in the first week of April while stepping out of the beautiful campus that I felt my MBA life was over. Today, appears to be just a formality! But perhaps due to the coincidence that it is 19th April, I do feel a bit of nostalgia!Ā
19th April, on both the days, two years apart, I just felt like logging on to pagalguy the moment I woke up, that day with a feeling of hope, today with a feeling of nostalgia.
I wish all you Puys & Pirls get in your dream B-Schools, not just get admitted but physically get in your B-School campuses soon! We start preparing for CAT with a dream of stepping inside the B-School campuses to experience that transient moment of pride, and that cannot happen over a Microsoft Teams meeting! One canāt do much with the COVID situation out there but only hope, hope that things will get better.
āHope is a good thing, maybe the best of thingsā¦ā and I hope you know the rest.