The Journey

I remember nearly two years ago, when I stood outside MET Institute of Management and thinking to myself “Did I make the right decision in joining this college?”

It all started with all my frustration at work. I was bored beyond belief doing the same thing over and over again, day in and day out. I desperately needed a change and with that mentality I gave the CET. For the first time in my life, I went through the whole CET process. From the exam itself to the GD to the PI and I somehow managed to secure a seat in MET. I grabbed the opportunity with both hands and put in my papers the very next day and in a month’s time I was back to being a student.

The transition itself from a professional to a student was a very difficult one for me. I had lost all my will to sit in one place and listen to people go on about stuff. The 1^st three days of the induction program were brutal on me. Sitting on those uncomfortable chairs listening to people drone on about how great it is that I am doing an MBA and how bad the economy was doing. Now when I look back, I am glad that some of the speakers didn’t sugarcoat things for me. It was bit of an eye opening moment for me and it actually willed me into working a bit harder in the next four semesters. But during those three days the one thing about which I thought non-stop was - “would it be too drastic if I jumped through the window to escape this?” Anyways after the grueling rite of passage every MET student has to go through, we went on the outbound programs. This is where I made my first friends in MET and I came to realize that this could be fun. My engineering college experience was nothing much to write home about. I had somehow managed to survive my 4 years of rigorous imprisonment. I had made a promise to myself that things would be different this time around. I am not going to survive it but I am going to enjoy it and I swear on everything that I hold dear to me, I did exactly that!

But ladies and gentlemen, it was never that easy. 44 subjects in 4 semesters with a summer internship of 2 months left me with very little time to do anything else. The lectures were 3 hours long an as it is I have a big problem in paying attention to anything for more than 10 minutes. It was difficult to sit there and try to pay attention for the whole 3 hours. Then there were the presentations. So many freaking presentations! It was sometimes really good and sometimes not too good. The most fun I personally had in a presentation was the 1^st semester Law presentation. I don’t think a lot many would agree with me but I never had that much fun while presenting a PPT. The re-scheduling of the time table all the time surely frayed my nerves on more than one occasion. The exams were another nightmare for me. 11 papers on the trot without a break can surely drive anyone crazy! But that was not even the worst part. The worst part was the disappearance of my weekends. With three lectures on both Saturdays and Sundays, the weekend part of my life was cruelly taken from me.

But times were never always dark. I shifted to Bandra and got three incredible room-mates Lovenish, Niraj and Patil Sahib. We had some crazy times in that stupid wash basin leaking flat. We also made the GMB Inc. Don’t ask!

And then there was the division in which I was in. The best damn division in the whole of MET. B division! I had a lot of fun in the class, no matter what. What made everything feel even better was that people genuinely helped each other without an agenda. There were a few trips also thrown in for good measure. Be it the Outbound, Silvassa IV, Lonavala b’day party, or the Goa IV. I had a really good time on each and every trip.

I got along with nearly everyone (some might say in the contrary) but I still hadn’t found my so called friends niche. I am lucky that I eventually did and thus was born “The Wolfpack”. If you think that this is a very presumptuous name, I would ask you to take it up with the guy who came up with the name, Mr. Rahul Noronha, king of Bandra, Patron-in-chief of Janta’s, etc etc. Then there was Janhavi, the nerd of the group (what? It’s true! Ask anyone), Devanshi the first girl I spoke to in MET, Motwani according to whom “No Entry” is the best hindi comedy made, Rucha the one soon to be married, Dhwanil the blackberry boy (you ditched blackberry now but it’s fine), Yogi fellow RAITian, and the ever absent Shivani. The whole MBA experience was better because I went through it with you guys!

So coming back to the question, “did I make the right decision?” The right answer to that is a resounding “YES”. Leave aside the curriculum, the abysmal placement scene, the professors; the answer is yes because I was able to share the journey with some of the best people I know in my life.

So it is the end or the beginning? Everybody will answer it differently. For me personally, it’s just the beginning of the rest of my life. I hope I keep running into “my friends from MBA” all the time.

And lastly, I am really sorry from the bottom of my heart to anyone whom I hurt during these two years. I wish the whole MET MMS class of 2013 all the very best in their lives and may you all fulfill all your dreams. It was both a pleasure and an honor to have shared such an important phase of my life with you guys. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Picture courtesy Aditya Phatak

Being 26

I am 26 and a half. It is a really difficult age to be. I mean your wild years are behind you. Now all you can look forward to is maturity. All your friends are getting married or engaged. Your facebook timeline looks like a Wedding album and Engagement proclamation combined.

Everywhere you look, you will find people just waiting to get married. All your exes are getting married and driving into the sunset with their knight in shining armour.  You are working real hard because you want to be worthwhile. There’s no time to be wasted. You lose touch with your close friends with whom you thought you would always be in touch. You come to know about their marriages via status updates and photo updates. You can’t drink as much alcohol as you used to. Now it takes a whole day just to recover from the hangover. You start getting a tummy. All the girls you see are too young for you. All the girls your age are in a steady relationship. God forbid if you are single at the age of 26, you will find a single girl when hell freezes over.

These symptoms were not even the worse ones. The worst side effect of being a 26 year old guy in India is your family relatives asking you the dreaded question: “When are you getting married?” Why the hell is everyone all of a sudden interested in me getting married! Do I think I am ready? Let me tell you the answer to that one “NO!!” Every family function or get together you attend this topic raises its ugly head! I feel as if I should stick a note on my head saying “Not ready”. Everyone is curious if you are seeing someone. Even if you are not, there are a lot of nosey people who would try to dig out information about it. You really can’t run away from all this. How long can you say no to attending family functions?!

Ahh well.. what can one do? I guess as we go towards the later half of the 20s, this all is expected. But, why god why? I thought we had a deal. I wouldn’t age more than 25!! Whatever happened to that one??

Memoirs of an Engineer

I graduated in engineering way back in 2008. This is just a look back on those 4 years of, how do I put it delicately “suffering”. Well, I started attending an engineering college in 2004 (nearly 10 years ago, time does fly by!!) and for the next 4 years I went through all the ups and downs an engineer is supposed to go through especially if that engineer is doing his engineering from Mumbai University.

The fight is to get to the magical figure of 40. Everyone apart from the really bright, genious ones looked at 40 as a milestone. An engineer knows the true power of the number 40. It can make or break your semester depending which side of 40 you fall on. 40 for me was the begin all and end all of exams. During each and every paper of my engineering life, I counted my marks till I was sure I would somehow get to the magical number. After that, whatever I got was just a bonus for me! I was a reluctant engineer, just doing engineering because I couldn’t think of doing anything else and also, all my school friends were on their way to becoming one. So for me, getting 40 was all that mattered.

Another interesting aspect of doiing engineering from Mumbai University was the “Vivas”. That was always fun. Sample this: 3 guys sitting facing an unknown face in most cases.

Unknown face: What do you mean by blah blah?

Guy 1: (with an really intense look on his face) Sir, I have not read that chapter.

Guy 2: (with a look that says he is trying to remember) Blah blah I think sir is ahhh..uhhhh..mmmm..

The Unknown face looks at the 3^rd guy

Guy 3: I don’t know sir!

Unknown face: You guys have not prepared anything at all. Anyways what is the equation for a circle?

Guy 1: (draws a circle and trying to deduce the equation)

Guy 2: It’s x2/a2 + y2/b2 = r2

The unknown face looks impressed and turns to guy 3.

Guy 3: Sir, as guy 2 said!

I was nearly always guy 3 in the vivas. And it was always fun. The crowding of people who just came out after giving their vivas, asking them questions as the paparazzi would have asked them. “what questions did he ask you?” “which chapter is this shit from?” “is the external strict?” “what the fuck?!” etc etc. And God forbid, if the profs go for their lunch break before taking your viva. The choicest of words were then used to describe the situation! It was always fun these vivas!! The amounting tension. The what if question about what if the external tells us to go, study and come back to give the vivas. That was always dreaded.

Moving on to the practicals! Ahhhh…praticals! 2 hours wasted standing in some lab or other with faulty machinary to give you company. The most productive work of the viva happened in the last 10 mins where readings were smartly copied from the one group of geniouses who actually managed to get the reading somehow. Praticals were the time when people caught up with each other. Tales were exchanged. Gossip was circulated etc etc.

Then there were the assignents! I mean I still don’t understand the use of assignments in egineering. Same questions were given to the whole class on the pretext that the students will not copy from each other. Everyone used to wait till someone finished the assignment and then it was a mad scramble to get the photocopy (xerox in popular lingo) of that elusive solution set. People spent days trying to copy and decipher what the other person has written. That mad rush was really special!

I admit I could never bring myself to love engineering but there were these moments which made it nearly worth it. I got my first job just because I was an engineer and I could talk properly. I am ever grateful to my college for getting me a job at the height of the 2008 recession.  The friends I made, the hostel life, becoming an independent person, falling in and out of love, and many other things! It’s true I am not very proud of being an engineer but as I look back now, it was the best thing that could have happened to me at that point of time to me. It played a big role in making me what I am today! So thank you Engineering for teaching me so many valuable lessons.

P.S: The most important thing which engineering taught me was to procastinate till the very last moment and still get the work done at the very last moment!