Monday, April 02, 2007

The year gone by!

So finally at last after such a long time (and many more such adjectives) the first year is over. We (people who were brave enough to take AMDA course) are done with the final exam of term 3 as well as the final submission (we still have an RMD submission to do but what the hell). It feels great to have finally finished an year which a lot of people call is close to a snapshot from hell with out any major hiccups (ya ya I know i missed an exam due to over sleeping but is that major....naa!!!). We are out of the woods celebrating you may think..... well not so. This poor soul has to work on something known as CCS which is supposed to be part of a project in the next term which is supposed to start about 2.5 months from now... SO basically although we have finished the first year the second term has started for us without giving us even a day of vacation!!!

I had to cancel my ticket for travelling home as I had to work on RMD project as well as work on the CCS project. I think I deserved a break a break from all this studies and projects and submissions but as it stands I don't think I would get any.

So enough of bitching....the real question is what have I learnt over the last 9 months. I came into this institute after working for about 2 years where I was getting decent salary. What transformation does this place provide so that the same person who was getting a decent salary ends up paying taxes much more than others salary. I have been thinking about it a lot and have never been able to find an answer. In my case I believe academically I have done decently well here not only in terms of grades but more importantly in terms of learning. But if that would have been the deciding change then I could as well have read the books without coming to IIM and still get such humongous pay. So that should not be the case. Some would say its the profs which make your learning better and blah blah blah.. and I agree to a certain extent. If there is somebody who is exceptional but then not every body could be exceptional here as well. So that rules out this possibility as well.

They say you start working as a team... all bullshit I say. In projects most of the time not all people work at least that has been my experience. Hence its more like people willing to work will work and rest wont. That too you try and distribute the work and in the end collate the work together. So where is the group learning?

Your personality changes some say!!! I doubt that too. Your personality cant go through a huge change in 2 years or lets put it this way it is improbable. At least for most its not the case. For me .....well it has changed but to some extent. How why and all are questions that can be answered some other time.

My biggest take away from here would be the network I have developed here. I have met people who are top notch smart from all over India. Most of them would be or are in line to become future CEOs and a network like this definitely helps. But even above this I have made some (although few) really good friends. I have come in touch with people who have been able to understand me and like me for what I am. I would have come to this place and gone through the torture of the first year without even thinking twice just to know such people. I hope they think the same for me and I really hope that this friendship(s) does not end with the second year. This place would have been extremely difficult to get through had it not been for these guys ....so I would like to say "Thank you so much!!!".

Well I am out of all the reasons I have heard so far (as well as out of time as I need to go and prepare for my CCS). Well I still have an year to find out. Hopefully I will be successful in the next year and come up with an answer. Till then let me keep thinking......